Chapter 1022 Super Iron Bucket Formation
Guardiola finally decided to do his best to fight for possession of the ball.
He announced the decision in the locker room before the game, but before that, he revealed it to Su Dong privately.
In this regard, Su Dong also expressed his support and promised to cooperate to the best of his ability.
It is difficult to say which of the two choices is better or worse. It’s just that different personalities and different ideas lead to different decisions.
Guardiola was struggling with this for a whole day, which shows that he attached great importance to Su Dong's opinion. If it were someone else, he probably wouldn't even listen and would just reject it directly.
You know, Guardiola is a head coach with a very strong personality.
Su Dong is a professional player and he has his own professional ethics.
What is professional ethics?
That is, no matter whether the decision made by the head coach is in line with his wishes, he will unconditionally and do his best to implement it on the court, and even do his best to help the head coach achieve this goal.
This is the professional ethics of professional players.
The relationship between Su Dong and Guardiola is mutual respect, which includes that Su Dong will respect Guardiola's opinions.
Of course, if he finds that Guardiola's tactics are not obvious or are poorly effective in the game, he will definitely put forward his opinions again and even try his best to persuade Guardiola.
But before that, the head coach still has to be respected.
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Manchester City players did not resist Guardiola's decision because this is the tactical style that Manchester City is best at.
Guardiola also continued to use his previous regular lineup in the starting lineup arrangement.
The goalkeeper is Courtois, the back line is Marcelo, Pepe, Kompany and Zabaleta, the midfield is Busquets, the front is David Silva and Toni Kroos, and the front trident is a combination of Di Maria, Sudon and Sanchez.
This is Manchester City's main lineup in the Champions League this season. Except for some adjustments in individual games, this is basically the main lineup. This is also Manchester City's most powerful lineup in terms of combat effectiveness and offensive firepower.
Guardiola's requirement is simple, that is to fight for the team's possession of the ball and try to suppress Chelsea.
Bayern Munich's two-legged semi-final is indeed worthy of Manchester City's vigilance, but the problem is that Manchester City has Su Dong, which is what Bayern Munich lacks. There is no need to say much about how effective Su Dong can be. Just look at how the German media, Bayern legends and professionals around the world evaluate Bayern after losing the semi-final.
Almost everyone misses Su Dong. Even Beckenbauer believes that Bayern was eliminated in the semi-finals for two consecutive seasons because of the loss of Su Dong, which weakened the team's frontcourt offense and now has no confidence.
Manchester City's ability to pass the ball, create opportunities, and put pressure on opponents is even better than Bayern Munich. Coupled with a strong Su Dong, Guardiola believes that Manchester City has every chance of doing what Bayern cannot do.
That is to break Chelsea's goal! In such a Champions League final, as long as they score first, the balance of victory will tilt towards Manchester City.
The reason is simple. After scoring the first goal, Chelsea will definitely press forward, and the defense will inevitably make mistakes, which will naturally give Manchester City more opportunities.
During the pre-match mobilization, Su Dong also encouraged his teammates, saying that as long as everyone strictly implemented the coach's tactics, Manchester City would be able to defeat Chelsea and win the first Champions League title in the club's history.
This will also make Manchester City the sixth legendary team in the history of the Champions League to win the championship in its first participation.
This honor also makes everyone in Manchester City very excited and full of expectations.
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The referee for the final was Pedro Proenca from Portugal.
Speaking of which, he is not unfamiliar with Su Dong, because when Su Dong played for Sporting Lisbon in the Portuguese Super League, he was the chief referee of the Portuguese Super League. At that time, he did not have his current status.
Su Dong led the Manchester City players out of the locker room and came to the player tunnel. He high-fived and greeted the Chelsea players along the way, and hugged Drogba, Lampard, Terry, Cech and others.
They are bitter rivals on the court, but privately, the players actually have a pretty good relationship with each other.
For example, Juan Mata from Real Madrid has great respect for Sudong because he heard a lot about the legend of Sudong when he played for Valencia, and he also has a good relationship with David Silva.
Proenca simply shook hands with Su Dong, said hello, and spoke a few words. After all, he had to avoid suspicion before the game. He didn't want to be criticized for being close to Manchester City.
As for what he wanted to talk to Su Dong about after the game, that was another matter.
Over the years, Su Dong has encountered many referees looking for him for autographs in the player tunnel after the game.
It's nothing more than asking for an autograph or photo of your child.
Even a world-class British referee like Webber took the child's mobile phone and took a photo with him, saying that he wanted to use it as the phone wallpaper.
Before the game, everyone is very affectionate, but when the game really starts, the referee has his own set of standards on how to enforce the law.
The same goes for players.
Just like Pepe, he was reminding Drogba to be careful later.
"You're not young anymore, don't get hurt later."
Drogba snorted with a sneer, "I am indeed not as good as I used to be, but I am still more than capable of bullying you."
The two of them had a quarrel, which was quite amusing for the people around them.
Pepe is one of the most physically fit players in the world football after Lucio, and is not even inferior to Lucio and Vidic back then. He is also very flexible, has good skills at foot, and is very comprehensive, which allows him to not suffer any loss when facing the beast Drogba, so the grudge between the two has a long history.
As the two teams, led by referee Proenka, walked into the stadium one after another, the overwhelming cheers from the scene made everyone's blood boil, and everyone's emotions seemed to be ignited.
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With Proenca's whistle, Chelsea, who took the lead in kicking the ball, kicked the ball back to their own half.
Manchester City players led by Su Dong pressed forward at the fastest speed, heading straight for Chelsea's half, and pounced on the two central defenders Terry and Cahill on the back line. This made Chelsea's back line a little nervous, and they quickly passed the ball back to the goalkeeper.
Needless to say, Cech kicked the ball forward, but Pepe got the ball down first.
The ball changes hands.
Chelsea had long been accustomed to this and was not in a hurry. Instead, after losing the ball, everyone organized a tight defensive formation in the area from the front of their own penalty area to 30 meters.
By the time Manchester City advanced to Chelsea's half, they were shocked to find that the Blues had organized three tight lines of defense.
Marcelo and Di Maria faced the defense of Ivanovic and Ramires, Sanchez and Zabaleta faced Ashley Cole and Juan Mata, Busquets who was lagging behind was disturbed by Lampard, and David Silva and Toni Kroos faced Mikel and Meireles.
Gary Cahill and Terry were roaming on the left and right sides of Su Dong.
It can be said that Chelsea's entire defense was very tight, leaving no gaps for Manchester City. At the same time, the three lines were kept quite compact and meticulous, and the players' tactical execution was also very high. Everyone assisted each other in defense and filled in positions. With Manchester City's passing and controlling the ball and the support of the players' running, there was not much space left.
It was not until the seventh minute of the game that Manchester City made the first shot of the game, from Su Dong, but Su Dong's shot was blocked by Cahill who flew out to block the shot, and failed to threaten the goal.
Manchester City then continued to attack Chelsea, but was unable to pose an effective threat.
Every time they attacked Chelsea's penalty area, the Blues organized a tight defensive formation, with defensive players everywhere inside and outside the penalty area, making it difficult for Manchester City's offense to pose a threat in such a densely populated area.
Manchester City played very patiently, Sudon kept directing his teammates on the court, Busquets, David Silva and others also skillfully controlled the midfield, but Chelsea also defended very patiently. They were not in a hurry and did not even plan to organize a counterattack.
Is it conceivable that Chelsea didn't even have a single shot in the first 20 minutes? The Blues looked determined to defend to the end.
Breaking through dense defenses, especially iron bucket formations, is a common problem all over the world.
Breaking Chelsea's super iron bucket formation composed of world-class defenders is the most difficult problem among the problems.
Chelsea's style of play has trapped Bayern. Now, Di Matteo has even organized a tighter defensive formation than against Bayern to freeze Manchester City.
Speaking of defense, this is definitely the Italian head coach's forte.
Di Matteo's defensive tactics, combined with the defensive genes from Ranieri to Mourinho, and the strong execution of Chelsea players, together formed an unbreakable steel line of defense.
In the face of Chelsea's defense, Manchester City hit a wall again and again, and returned empty-handed again and again.
Chelsea was neither greedy nor aggressive, nor was they in a hurry. They moved forward when they had the chance, and immediately retreated to defend when they lost the ball, without any desire to fight.
This made everyone in Manchester City feel very depressed.
One thing is certain, that is, in terms of ball possession and footwork, Manchester City has an overwhelming advantage, but when it comes to physical and strength confrontation, except for Su Dong and the defenders, Manchester City players basically cannot gain any advantage.
But in the dense defense organized by Chelsea, physical confrontation became an inevitable contest.
In the tight defense, it is difficult for Manchester City players to get the ball, but their bodies are always in contact with their opponents, which gives Chelsea, who have the physical advantage, an advantage and also forces Manchester City to keep the ball more in the midfield and backcourt.
This looks like data inflating.
In the stands of the stadium, fans of both teams were shouting extremely loudly, but they could also see that the game was quite dull; it was intense but lacked excitement.
Manchester City often had to pass the ball back and forth in the midfield and backcourt, and although Su Dong ran actively in the front, he could not withstand the opponent's large number of people.
Just imagine, as long as he has the ball, there will be at least two players around him, and if he is in the dangerous middle, there may even be three or four people surrounding him. What can he do?
(End of this chapter)
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