Chapter 762 He is Su Dong!
In the head coach's office at Tottenham Hotspur's training base in the northern suburbs of London, veteran coach Harry Redknapp is studying game videos with his two right-hand men, Joe Jordan and Kevin Bond.
Joe Jordan is a famous Scottish player. He played for top clubs such as Manchester United and AC Milan during his career. He played in the World Cup and the Champions League finals. After retiring, he became a coach and worked for Tottenham Hotspur. He is now the chief assistant coach.
Kevin Bond is Redknapp's partner for many years. The two started at Portsmouth, went through Southampton, and followed Redknapp to Tottenham Hotspur. He is considered the old coach's most trusted assistant.
The three of them were sitting in the office and had just finished watching Manchester City's last warm-up match of the season.
"Guardiola really knows how to have fun." Kevin Bond shook his head and laughed.
"Before, he didn't let Su Dong play, which caused such a big controversy. He said he wanted to hide it. But now, he suddenly let him play. He played for more than ten minutes and scored a goal. What's going on?"
Redknapp's face also became very serious, the situation was very serious.
That’s Su Dong!
A goal-scoring monster who scores dozens of goals in a season!
Who dares to ignore him? Apart from anything else, Su Dong just stood there motionless, and Redknapp had to arrange two people to watch over there to feel at ease.
What's more, now, Su Dong suddenly came on as a substitute and scored a goal in nine minutes.
He didn't show anything else, but Su Dong's shooting sense was still there, his smart running was still there, and his ability to seize opportunities was still there, which was enough to make him the most terrifying scorer on the court.
Yes, even if Su Dong is seriously not in the best condition, he is still the most terrifying!
Not to mention, we have no idea what Su Dong’s condition is now.
"I guess Guardiola wants him to play in this game to find his rhythm and form." Joe Jordan was also a striker, and a very good one at that, so he knows more about the situation of strikers.
Although it is good enough for a striker to just score goals, he must do more if he wants to score goals.
Scoring a goal is never a simple matter of kicking the ball, but a very large systematic project.
Passing, receiving, running, timing, observing the surrounding environment, predicting the defensive players' actions, the goalkeeper's position...
The existence of too many complex factors makes scoring a goal the most complicated thing on the football field.
Many times, fans only see the moment when the striker scores a goal and ignore what happened before and after that moment.
The visible tip of the iceberg is often the most inconspicuous.
"It seems that Su Dong is in very good shape. Guardiola deliberately hid him, obviously wanting to use him as a surprise weapon." Kevin Bond guessed, but he also felt very troubled by this.
Su Dong is definitely the most terrifying superstar in the world. He is the kind of superstar that you know is terrifying, but you don’t know how to defend him. This feeling of helplessness makes people extremely desperate.
"From the current perspective, Guardiola should still adopt a 4-3-3 formation, with Sudon in the middle, Di Maria and Sanchez playing on the wings. In the midfield, David Silva and Busquets will definitely be the main players. For the other spot, Toni Kroos, Moutinho and Gareth Barry have all played a lot."
"On the left side of the back line, Marcelo, Pepe and Kompany are partners. On the right side, he has tried Zabaleta and Jerome Boateng. Both players have made mistakes and are not very stable. The defense of the two wingers is not very ideal. This should be our opportunity."
Wing attacks have always been Tottenham Hotspur's strong point. The two wings formed by Aaron Lennon and Gareth Bale were the key weapon for Tottenham Hotspur to finish fourth in the Premier League last season.
It can be said that these two wingers with fast speed and amazing impact should be able to suppress Manchester City's two flanks.
But the key to the problem is not here, but the midfield suppression and the back line.
Manchester City's full-backs have always had problems, but their midfield and even all three lines have superb passing and ball control abilities. When they have the ball, defensive problems are not particularly serious.
And there is Su Dong, who is the biggest threat to Tottenham Hotspur.
"Michael Dawson, Ledley King, and Huddlestone, do you think these three people can defend Su Dong?" Redknapp suddenly asked.
Joe Jordan and Kevin Bond looked at each other for a moment, then frowned in confusion.
These three players of Tottenham Hotspur have one thing in common: they are all very tall, about 1.9 meters tall, and are from England's youth training system. They are good in strength confrontation. Huddlestone's advantage also lies in passing.
"It's hard to say." After a long time, Kevin Bond sighed helplessly.
If you think about it carefully, it’s really frustrating.
Three people were guarding one other person, but the conclusion they came to was hard to say.
What a terrible gap!
"This guy is a monster!" Redknapp exclaimed.
Who says it's not true? Looking at the European football scene, who else can do it except Su Dong?
Even superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi can usually be defended by two people, but Su Dong, a player with three players, is so frustrating! The old coach stood up from the sofa and paced back and forth in the office.
Joe Jordan and Kevin Bond were also in deep thought.
The atmosphere in the office suddenly became silent, making people feel very depressed.
After pacing back and forth for a while, the old coach finally made a decision.
…………
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As the new season approaches, the attention of media and fans around the world has been drawn back to the Premier League.
The new season of the Premier League is different from previous ones, mainly because a new regulation has been implemented, the 17 plus 8 new policy.
The so-called seventeen plus eight means that each Premier League team can only report a roster of twenty-five players, of which eight must be locally trained players. The so-called local training means that the players have been registered with the Football Association of England or Wales for thirty-six months or three seasons before the age of twenty-one.
The starting point of the new policy is that the popularity of the Premier League forms a sharp contrast with the weakness of the England national team, which makes the English Football Association hope to use the strength of the Premier League to enhance the competitiveness of the national team.
But this will have a huge impact on the top teams, both in terms of the number of registrations and the number of locally trained players. From the current perspective, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City's regular first-team players will definitely not be able to register a full eight players.
Therefore, the team either has to plunder local players in the transfer market or support players from the youth team to make up the numbers. No matter which one, it will definitely have some impact on the overall strength of the team.
This new policy will certainly further increase the value of English players, so Manchester City is currently looking for local players who meet Guardiola's tactical requirements, hoping to fill the gaps in the team's new policy.
If the team has not found a suitable player before the transfer market closes, it can only use players from the youth team to make up the numbers. Now young players such as Trippier, Micah Richards and Michael Johnson have been included.
But it’s still not enough.
This is not just a problem for Manchester City, the situation at Liverpool and Chelsea is not much better than that of Manchester City.
The only better ones are Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. These teams all have valuable local players. Arsenal is special. They have been scouting for young players all over the world in the past few years and cultivating them for their own youth training, which is in line with the requirements of the new policy.
In fact, England's local players do not quite meet Guardiola's requirements, but due to the new policy, the team is not satisfied with just being a spoiler this season. If they want to go further, they cannot miss any opportunity to strengthen their own strength. Therefore, Begiristain is still looking for players everywhere.
…
With the new season about to start, Manchester City needs to report the player list and jersey numbers.
To this end, Manchester City also organized a special meeting of players in the locker room.
As the team captain, Su Dong presided over the meeting, allowing the players to have an open conversation, choose the jersey number they want, or exchange it with other players.
Most players do not have this need. Some new players have basically chosen their favorite jerseys when they joined the team. Su Dong took over Manchester City's No. 9 jersey at that time.
Ever since Bulgarian striker Bojinov left the team, his No. 9 jersey has been vacant. There have even been rumors that this jersey was reserved for Su Dong, so even Santa Cruz chose another jersey number.
And this time, Su Dong did take the No. 9 jersey.
This was also his jersey number when he played for Valencia, Barcelona and Bayern, and it has even become his label.
England's goalkeeper Joe Hart will challenge Given's position as the main goalkeeper this season, but he did not ask Given for the number one jersey representing the main goalkeeper. Instead, he chose the number 25, which is actually one of the regular numbers for goalkeepers.
After distributing the jerseys, the club formally submitted them to the English Football Association and the Premier League, and also announced them on the club's official website.
If new players are introduced next, the jersey numbers will be selected from the current vacant jersey numbers.
…
The Premier League's opening match kicks off at noon.
This is earlier than the normal Premier League game time, but the advantage is that even fans in Asia can watch the live broadcast of the game during the prime time in the evening.
Manchester City was playing away, so the team decided to go south to London one day in advance.
There is no way around it. If we go south on the day of the competition, time will be very tight.
So, on the evening of the 13th, after finishing the training session, the team packed up their things and headed south to London.
By this time, London was already filled with pre-war tension.
On the first day of the new Premier League season, there is only one focus match: Tottenham Hotspur vs. Manchester City at home.
But the next day, Liverpool's home game against Arsenal also attracted the attention of the world.
Both Chelsea and Manchester United are playing at home. Their opponents are West Bromwich Albion and Newcastle United respectively. There is a high possibility that they can win three points at home.
Therefore, Manchester City is under a lot of pressure in their first game of the new season.
(End of this chapter)
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