Chapter 825 Su Dong Dependence
On the evening of January 13th, at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester.
In the 13th round of the Premier League, Manchester City faced Birmingham at home.
When the game reached the 70th minute, Guardiola once again replaced Santa Cruz with Sudong.
During Su Dong's injury, Santa Cruz started in two consecutive games, but he did not show the strength that a main center forward of a team aiming to win the Premier League championship should have, which made Guardiola and even Manchester City very dissatisfied with him.
Santa Cruz is definitely capable, but if this capability is not brought into play in the current Manchester City team, it will be meaningless, so almost everyone in the team has concluded that Manchester City will recruit players during the winter break, and Santa Cruz is likely to become a bonus in the transfer and be sent away from the team.
It can be seen that the Paraguayan center really wanted to prove his strength in front of the home fans, but unfortunately, he did not put in a satisfactory performance from beginning to end.
In the 70th minute, when he walked to the sidelines again and hugged Su Dong politely, his face looked very ugly.
I'm afraid even he himself knows that his journey in Manchester City is basically over.
Of course, this may not be a bad thing for him.
…
Sometimes, things are just really weird.
When Santa Cruz was on the field, Birmingham's midfield and backcourt were very solid and did not give the Paraguayan center forward any chance.
But when Santa Cruz left the field and Su Dong came on as a substitute, Birmingham's defenders took the initiative to give away a goal after just seven minutes.
Barry Ferguson. As the name suggests, he has nothing to do with Ferguson, nor with Gareth Barry. However, this name left an extremely deep impression on people in the 77th minute.
That is, when Toni Kroos pressed him, he took the initiative to pass the ball back. Uh, no, it should be that he actively cooperated with Manchester City players in the attack and sent a precise and deadly through ball from outside the Birmingham penalty area.
The ball passed between the two central defenders, allowing Su Dong, who had just come on as a substitute, to successfully make an offside move. After receiving the ball, he dribbled into the left side of the penalty area and had a one-on-one opportunity. He shot with a low left foot and broke through Birmingham's goal, scoring the first goal for Manchester City.
After scoring the goal, Su Dong almost couldn't help but rush over to celebrate this wonderful goal with Barry Ferguson.
He himself did not expect that the opponent's midfielder would take the initiative to give him such a wonderful assist.
Is it because I'm too handsome? Whatever, the ball went in, so let's celebrate!
Su Dong ran all the way excitedly, celebrating his goal, leaving Barry Ferguson behind with a confused look on his face.
"It is surprising that Birmingham midfielder Barry Ferguson made such a low-level mistake."
"I believe that at this moment, all Birmingham fans will want to ask him, did you fix the match? Otherwise, how could you give Su Dong an assist?"
"Or are you a loyal fan of Su Dong? Do you want to help him score a goal?"
"But no matter which one it is, Barry Ferguson, let's remember this name. His passing skills are really good. In McRush's Birmingham, his potential in this aspect was obviously not brought out. I strongly suggest that Guardiola should sign him. I believe he will provide more assists for Su Dong."
“The most important thing is that Barry Ferguson really isn’t expensive.”
…
In the end, thanks to Su Dong's goal, Manchester City beat Birmingham 1-0 at home.
For two consecutive rounds, Manchester City lost 1-0 at home. The only difference was that in the second game, a Birmingham player assisted in the goal. This made the British media generally believe that Manchester City had developed a "Soviet and Eastern European addiction".
In fact, this is normal, because Su Dong's goals are the key to Manchester City's consecutive victories. After Su Dong was injured, he was a substitute for two consecutive rounds, which proved his role and value in Manchester City, which cannot be replaced by any other player.
Guardiola does not mind the media discussing the so-called Su Dong dependence. He speaks highly of Su Dong and believes that Su Dong is the strongest player in world football today, without a doubt, and will also be the winner of this year's first FIFA Ballon d'Or.
"Obviously, this would not be news. The news would be if he didn't win the award!" Guardiola is obviously full of confidence that Su Dong will win the award.
At the same time, Guardiola also believes that Manchester City does not need to get rid of the so-called "Soviet and Eastern European dependence" because this is a very normal thing.
"Every team has some players who are extremely strong. They will play a key role and even make the team and teammates rely on them unconsciously. This is normal. Such players are usually the most valuable assets of the club."
Guardiola believes that Su Dong is Manchester City's most valuable asset.
But he also believes that the team does not need to solve the so-called "Su Dong addiction" now, but should strengthen the team's bench depth. He hopes to introduce appropriate players during the winter break.
The media took the initiative to ask about Wolfsburg's Bosnian center Dzeko. Guardiola made no secret of his admiration for Dzeko, but he also said that it would be difficult to bring this center from Wolfsburg.
The presence of Su Dong will make any center forward who wants to join Manchester City consider it carefully.
Because they are likely to struggle under the shadow of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe for a long time.
Of course, the benefits are also obvious, that is, they can be teammates with the best players in the world.
In addition to Dzeko, Everton left-back Leighton Baines was also mentioned by Daily.
The England international has been outstanding for Everton and Guardiola believes he will be a strong addition to the team's left-back role.
Marcelo is very strong on the offensive end and plays an important role in Guardiola's tactical system, but as a substitute for the left back, Bridge's performance has not been able to satisfy Guardiola, especially after the outbreak of the friend's wife scandal.
As early as last summer, there were reports that Manchester City was going to send Bridge away.
Now, this rumor is gradually becoming a reality.
…
Manchester City narrowly beat Birmingham by one goal and got three points, but in another match that took place at the same time, Manchester United obviously had not yet gotten over the shadow of the derby defeat and drew 2-2 with Aston Villa away from home.
Yes, a draw!
Manchester United conceded two goals in a row before substitutes Macheda and Vidic scored two goals in a row in the final stages of the game to equalize the score.
If Ferguson could accept the 1-0 loss to Manchester City in the last away game, then this defeat made Ferguson very angry. He even thought that some players' performance was disastrous at the post-match press conference.
The first to be hit was right back Wes Brown.
Aston Villa used Downing and Ashley Young to form the two wings, attacking Manchester United's two flanks in turn, making Wes Brown and Evra both caught in a dilemma and performing very awkwardly, especially Brown.
If Aston Villa's forwards had not been lacking in the ability to seize opportunities, Manchester United might have even lost by a large margin in this game. The Red Devils would have been completely defeated and there would have been no possibility of a subsequent equalizer.
This is also why Ferguson was very annoyed.
His team had already lost to Manchester City, losing three points and widening the points gap to nine points, but now it's a draw again.
Especially after the game, Manchester City beat Birmingham 1-0 and won three points again. The points gap between the two teams widened to eleven points. How could Ferguson accept this? The Manchester United godfather was almost going crazy!
Coincidentally, Liverpool, who have performed poorly this season, lost again in this round, losing 0-2 to Stoke City away.
After another loss, Liverpool's league ranking has dropped directly to eleventh in the Premier League.
This also surprised everyone.
You know, no matter how bad Liverpool was in the past, it was still relatively stable in the top four. It was just that last season, due to the departure of Xabi Alonso, the team's midfield was frustrated and they finished seventh. But after sending away Benítez, what has Liverpool become?
Arsenal's away game against Everton was also a thrilling win.
After finally taking a 2-0 lead, Cahill's goal helped Everton equalize the game. The Toffees then beat Arsenal in a pretty bad way, but the final score was still 1-2 and the Gunners narrowly won.
In the final match of the 13th round, Chelsea suffered a major upset at Stamford Bridge that shocked the entire European football world, losing 0-3 to Sunderland at home.
This complete defeat was simply unbelievable to everyone who was paying attention.
No one expected that Chelsea would suddenly suffer such a big collapse at home.
What exactly happened? The Sun quickly dug out the inside story. It turned out that Chelsea suddenly fired Ancelotti's right-hand man Wilkins without symptoms before the game, which shocked Chelsea's coaching staff and players.
Wilkins is the youngest captain in Chelsea's history and has made outstanding contributions. As a coach, he is Ancelotti's right-hand man. Although he is not directly involved in daily training, he is mainly responsible for the communication between the coaching staff and the players in the locker room. Ancelotti has praised Wilkins's huge role more than once, and the players also have a very good impression of him.
But who would have thought that such a famous player was fired directly because of a phone call. He didn't even have the chance to say goodbye to his players and colleagues, and never looked back.
The reason was simple. Chelsea was tightening its financial spending and reviewing the salaries of employees in various departments. The uniform team believed that Wilkins' annual salary of 350,000 pounds was too high, so CEO Gourlay called Wilkins, called him to Stamford Bridge, and fired him in person.
Wilkins also left angrily and never returned to the training base.
This caused intense turmoil within Chelsea and soon spread to the field.
But Ancelotti denied at the post-match press conference that Wilkins was not the reason for the team's defeat, but he admitted that the team's performance was very unexpected and completely beyond his expectations, and even he himself did not know the reason.
This ambiguous clarification has only further aroused suspicion from the outside world.
Especially after the game, Ancelotti was furious in the locker room, obviously he was also stimulated.
(End of this chapter)
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