Chapter 1023 This is the Champions League final!
"Thirty minutes, not even a shot, what on earth does he want to do?"
In front of Manchester City's coaching bench, Estiat said a little angrily.
The "he" mentioned by Manchester City's assistant coach is of course the head coach of the rival Chelsea, Di Matteo.
The game had been going on for half an hour, but Chelsea hadn't even had a shot on goal. This was simply outrageous.
Why is this happening?
Because Chelsea was unwilling to invest troops in the offense, Juan Mata found it difficult to launch an attack under the control of Zabaleta. Lampard was more focused on suppressing Busquets and was unable to launch an attack, resulting in no one in Chelsea's frontcourt being able to hold the ball and launch an attack.
As a result, Drogba was isolated and helpless in the frontcourt, and in the contest between Pepe and Kompany, he was outnumbered.
In fact, even when he was at his peak, it was difficult for Drogba to gain an advantage over Pepe and Kompany in a one-on-one situation, not to mention that Drogba is no longer at his peak and it was a one-on-two situation, so the Ivorian was even more embarrassed.
Since his teammates couldn't pass the ball and it was difficult for him to take advantage of Pepe and Kompany, Drogba was not stupid. He immediately chose to move to the side and run to the right side, which is Manchester City's left side, and specifically picked Marcelo to bully.
Damn, I can’t beat you, Pepe and Kompany, but can’t I bully Marcelo?
More importantly, Marcelo often moves forward. Although he is called a left-back, he is actually more like a left-sided midfielder or even a left winger. Therefore, Manchester City's left side, which is Chelsea's right side, is basically empty.
Ramirez followed Marcelo forward, so the entire right side was vacant, and Drogba ran over to receive a long pass from his teammate.
But it has to be said that Chelsea's long pass accuracy is really poor. Even if Drogba can barely catch it, it is too far away from the center, making it difficult for Chelsea's attack to pose a threat.
To put it bluntly, Drogba is not a player with super personal abilities like Su Dong, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. His advantage has never been dribbling the ball, so when he is pulled to the side, there is no one around to support him, and no one in the middle to keep up, how can the attack be effective? This has led to the current situation. Chelsea had zero shots in the first half hour of the game!
Chelsea's situation is indeed embarrassing, but Manchester City's situation is not particularly optimistic either.
Seven shots, four from long range and three in the penalty area, but none of them posed a threat.
Including Su Dong's two shots, both were blocked by Chelsea's defenders with their legs or bodies.
To put it bluntly, Chelsea's current defensive strategy is to fight with all their might.
First, they used the iron bucket tactics to defend tightly. If Manchester City created a crack, the defensive players would use their bodies to block it.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but the most number of blocked shots was three times, by Gary Cahill, and two of them were blocked by Su Dong, which shows how hard these Chelsea defenders tried.
With strict defense and soldiers fighting for their lives, Chelsea's iron defense meant that Manchester City could only pass and control the ball, but they were unable to pose a real threat.
This also made Estiat angry and anxious watching on the sidelines.
Especially on the court, Chelsea players would occasionally commit fouls against Manchester City players, which was even more frustrating.
This is actually a very normal tactic, but everyone would be dissatisfied within this scope.
…
"Chelsea's defense tonight was more conservative than in the previous two rounds against Bayern, and the formation was more meticulous, leaving us less space, almost no space." Guardiola analyzed lightly, without any emotion.
Only those who are familiar with and understand him know that Guardiola's words actually mean that he is somewhat regretful.
Su Dong said before the game that we should not push our opponents to death.
Even a rabbit will bite when it is cornered, let alone Chelsea is a tiger.
Even though it is old and sick, a tiger is still a tiger.
Manchester City's pressure on Chelsea will only put the Blues in a tighter position, and eventually they will become a dead end.
As Su Dong said before the match, the Chinese people's strategic thinking is called... When an army is surrounded, there must be a gap.
"Di Matteo is truly an Italian!" Torrent said sarcastically.
Italy also often represents conservatism.
Di Matteo's tactics tonight were indeed very conservative, but practical.
At least Manchester City has not been able to come up with an effective solution so far, resulting in them having more than 70% of the ball possession rate but still being unable to create a real threat.
"Do you want to adjust it now?" Estiart asked with concern.
Guardiola stared at the game on the field, frowning, and did not answer.
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Just like the solemn atmosphere on the Manchester City coaching bench, the atmosphere on the Chelsea coaching bench was also not relaxed.
Almost every attack of Manchester City would make Di Matteo worried and everyone nervous, because Manchester City has a super scorer like Su Dong, who dares to be careless? Even the slightest slackness, no matter how insignificant the mistake, could be caught by Su Dong and scored a goal.
Fortunately, Chelsea's defenders are very experienced, so they have made no mistakes so far.
Yes, Chelsea's defensive players, including the midfield, have not made any major mistakes in defense so far, which makes it difficult for Manchester City to pose a threat almost every time they attack.
But Di Matteo did not dare to be careless.
The initiative is in the hands of Manchester City and Guardiola.
The Blue Moon has the advantage of passing and controlling the ball, a stronger bench lineup, and more options. Chelsea can only respond passively, so Manchester City may make adjustments at any time next.
Di Matteo had no idea what adjustments Guardiola would make next.
Substitute Hazard? Yes, it's possible.
The Belgian winger is completely different from Di Maria. He is shorter, has better dribbling skills, and is more capable of creating threats and fouls, especially fouls, in dense defenses.
Su Dong's free kick skills are obvious to all. If Hazard comes up and dribbles through the dense defense and lures Chelsea's defenders into committing fouls, that would be dangerous and we must guard against it.
Or replace him with Aguero to share Su Dong’s pressure?
Or should they just switch to a three-man defense to further strengthen the attack? Di Matteo is quite worried about this.
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Although both sides had their own ideas, at the end of the first half, Manchester City did not make major adjustments to its tactics on the field.
Guardiola only made minor adjustments to some local positions, but the effect was not particularly obvious.
The number of shots was nine to zero, and Chelsea didn't have a single shot on target in the entire first half.
This surprised everyone, but at the same time everyone felt it was natural.
Manchester City's possession rate was over 80%, which is simply outrageous, but the score was still zero to zero.
The game was intense but also dull, with both sides attacking and defending. Most of the time the ball was passed back and forth in Manchester City's midfield and backcourt. It was difficult to open up the situation in the frontcourt, which was very depressing.
But this is the Champions League final!
As long as you can win, any tactic is a good tactic.
…
When Manchester City players returned to the locker room, Guardiola and other coaching staff members also followed them back.
The half-time break is very precious, and the coaching staff and players are racing against time to prepare.
Guardiola began to summarize the team's gains and losses in the first half. He believed that the team's 80% ball possession rate in the first half seemed to be a lot, but in fact, there was not much threatening ball possession time, and more of it was back-passing in the midfield and backcourt.
"In the second half, we should have moved the entire formation back a bit and concentrated around the midline."
"Busquets has been disturbed to a certain extent. David Silva and Toni Kroos need to move back a little, closer to our number four position. At the same time, their movement can be more flexible. They don't need to stick to the position and try to pull Mikel and Meireles out as much as possible."
"In the second half we have to be ready to deal with the threat from the opponent's midfield."
Guardiola's words surprised everyone in the locker room, and then they all turned to look at Su Dong.
Su Dong did not give much reaction, but suggested calmly: "We put a lot of pressure on the opponent from the wing in the first half, but I think we should stretch the opponent's defense a little more in the second half, and try to form one-on-one on the wing as much as possible, or break through or cut inside, I can handle it."
This proposal was immediately approved by Guardiola.
In fact, everyone knows that Guardiola is adjusting the team's starting tactics and letting the formation retreat in order to reduce the pressure on Chelsea. This is listening to Su Dong's pre-match advice, but he just doesn't want to say it clearly.
If we pass some ball possession to Chelsea, no one knows whether the Blues will press forward and attack.
However, after the overall retreat, Manchester City will have more space, especially David Silva and Toni Kroos will be further back, which will cause Chelsea's defense to be pressed out as well, and the space in the frontcourt will be relatively larger.
This is what Su Dong proposed, to let the wing players spread out the formation and form one-on-one as much as possible. Whether it is passing the ball from the bottom or cutting inside to cooperate, Su Dong can do it.
There is another very important reason why Manchester City dared to retreat the midfield, and that was Toni Kroos' long pass.
You know, throughout the first half, under the pressure of Manchester City, Chelsea's long pass success rate was very low. A very important point is that Chelsea lacks long pass experts.
But Manchester City is different. Everyone knows how sharp Toni Kroos' long passes are.
Even if they retreat, Manchester City is confident that, when necessary, Toni Kroos can always pass the ball to the most threatening area, which is also the weakest area of Chelsea's defense.
More importantly, after David Silva and Toni Kroos retreated, with Busquets as the anchor, the two players could move more flexibly, which was bound to make Chelsea's double defensive midfielders feel embarrassed.
If they follow, the entire formation will definitely become loose; if they don't follow, with the abilities of David Silva and Toni Kroos, once they get the ball, they may pass a good ball to Su Dong and others in front at any time.
This is the adjustment Guardiola made based on Su Dong’s suggestion. As for the risk, judging from Chelsea’s attitude in the first half, the team never thought about attacking.
In other words, Di Matteo's counterattack was more like a stroke of luck.
(End of this chapter)
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