Chapter 900: Old man, are you feeling happier now?
Community Shield, the prelude to the Premier League.
It is important because it is a showdown between the Premier League champions and the FA Cup champions, and the level of the participating teams is self-evident.
Judging from the level of participating teams, it is a bit like the Super Cup of other leagues.
But the reason why it is said to be unimportant is that it is different from the Super Cup of other leagues. Six players can be replaced, which is equivalent to a warm-up match. And as we all know, the Community Shield is actually a charity match.
In fact, many people generally believe that the Community Shield has a curse.
That is, the team that wins the Community Shield often fails to win the Premier League title in the new season.
This is of course nonsense, and not all of them are true, but the probability is still quite high.
There has even been a saying that a certain team strategically gave up the Community Shield and focused on training in order to avoid damaging team morale and to better compete for the league championship.
But it depends on the situation.
For example, this year's Community Shield featured the Manchester derby, a game that no one can ignore.
Before the game, both teams created a tense atmosphere for the decisive battle, making fans all over the world look forward to seeing a peak showdown in the Community Shield. However, at the beginning of the game, when the two teams announced their starting lineups, many people were disappointed.
Why?
No main force was used! ...
I don’t know if it’s because of Van der Sar’s farewell match, but Manchester United made major adjustments to its lineup.
The goalkeeper is De Gea, the defense is Evra, Evans, Phil Jones and Smalling, the midfield is Ashley Young, Anderson, Cleverley and Nani, and the frontcourt is Welbeck and Rooney.
Not only did Vidic and Ferdinand miss the defensive line, but midfielders Carrick, Giggs and others were all on the bench as well.
In the regular starting lineup, Ferguson fielded Rooney.
Manchester City also did not send out all its main players.
The goalkeeper is Joe Hart, the defense is Leighton Baines, Javi Martinez, Kompany and Trippier, the deep midfield is Thiago, the front court is the combination of David Silva and Toni Kroos, and the front three is the combination of Di Maria, Dzeko and Sanchez.
Su Dong, who went to Amsterdam to participate in Van der Sar's farewell match, also did not appear in the starting lineup, but sat on the bench. Aguero also sat on the bench.
This gives people a feeling that as long as the team plays smoothly, Guardiola doesn't even plan to let Su Dong play.
…
Although both teams did not send out all their main players, the game was still very intense.
Relying on the advantage of passing and controlling the ball, Manchester City firmly locked the situation at the beginning, controlled the scene, and frequently launched attacks and penetrations, especially in the frontcourt, playing very fiercely.
Whether it is Di Maria, Sanchez, or Dzeko, they all clearly felt the pressure from summer signings.
It would be the same no matter who was replaced. Three attackers were introduced in one summer. Who would not be under pressure except Su Dong?
These three new players all have prominent backgrounds.
Hazard is the best player in Ligue 1, Douglas Costa shined in the Champions League last season, not to mention Aguero, Argentina's famous talented striker and Maradona's son-in-law.
Looking at the world football today, apart from the top few superstars, who can face these three without pressure? The front court attacked fiercely, but the back line made mistakes one after another.
After a Manchester United midfielder intercepted the ball, Rooney retreated and quickly passed the ball behind him, and Nani quickly followed up.
Kompany made a serious mistake and failed to clear the ball accurately. Nani, who came in from behind, snatched the pass and had a one-on-one opportunity. After dribbling past goalkeeper Joe Hart, he pushed the ball into the empty goal, scoring the first goal for Manchester United.
One to zero!
After conceding the ball, Manchester City continued to organize the attack.
In the 38th minute, Evra committed a foul on the wing and David Silva made a free kick pass. Kompany, who had just made a serious mistake and caused the team to lose the ball, was double-teamed by Phil Jones and Evans and scored a header from close range to equalize the score for Manchester City, 1-1.
But before the end of the first half, Manchester United got a free kick opportunity on the left. When the ball was passed to the front of the small penalty area, Joe Hart did not attack decisively. Smalling seized the opportunity and volleyed the ball into the goal, helping Manchester United to increase the score again.
Two to one.
In the second half, Guardiola replaced three players during the half-time break.
David Luiz replaced Thiago, pushed Javi Martinez to the midfielder's back position, and let David Luiz partner with Kompany in central defense.
At the same time, Marcelo replaced Leighton Baines to strengthen the team's attack on the left, and Zabaleta replaced Trippier to strengthen the team's right defense, because Nani was very active on Manchester United's left in the first half.
This is also the experience summarized by Guardiola and Manchester City players after several warm-up matches in the summer.
For example, on the left side, Marcelo and Hazard are both players with strong ball control ability. If they appear on the left side at the same time, the performance of both players will be affected.
The team has only been playing together for a relatively short time, and has not yet come up with a good way to resolve the conflict between Hazard and Marcelo, so for the time being, the two can only be used separately.
So now, Manchester City's left-wing configuration is basically fixed, with Marcelo partnering with Di Maria, Leighton Baines partnering with Hazard, and even Sanchez, Douglas Costa, and even David Silva, when necessary, can play on the left.
There are many versatile players in the frontcourt, which is also a major feature of Manchester City.
Manchester City made three substitutions in one go, and Manchester United also made the same substitution.
There are six substitutions in the Community Shield, and no one will be polite.
In the 58th minute, Di Maria and David Silva's wall-to-wall cooperation at the front of the penalty area allowed Di Maria to break into the left rib of the penalty area and equalize the score for Manchester City, 2 to 2! After that, no matter how Manchester City attacked, they could not break through Manchester United's goal, and the game fell into a stalemate.
In the 75th minute, Guardiola replaced Dzeko with Sudong.
Just nine minutes later, Marcelo launched an attack from the left side of Manchester City. Just after crossing the center line, he passed the ball diagonally to Su Dong who was retreating to receive the ball.
Su Dong pulled to 30 meters outside Manchester United's area and received the ball without any defense.
He stopped the ball and turned to the right. There were no Manchester United defenders around, and Cleverley and Anderson were not in position.
This is also a characteristic of these two Manchester United midfielders, they can easily lose their positions.
But just when everyone thought that Su Dong would dribble the ball directly towards Manchester United's defense, Su Dong made a slight adjustment and suddenly shot.
The ball was like a sharp arrow, tearing through Manchester United's defense.
The ball was pushed fast and flat, and bounced off the ground near the small penalty area line, leaving De Gea, who was diving sideways, completely helpless. He could only watch the ball pass through his fingertips and into the goal behind him.
The unfortunate Spanish youngster conceded three goals in his first official match for Manchester United.
After Su Dong scored a goal, he did not run to the sidelines to celebrate, but raised his hands high and shouted on the spot.
The entire stadium was filled with cheers from Manchester City fans.
Su Dong turned around quickly and saw Ferguson in front of the coaching seat. They were very close to each other, and Ferguson could clearly see the smile on Su Dong's face and the provocation in his eyes.
Old man, now you know how good I am as a center forward, right? You made me play as a center back before, it was great, right?
Now, isn’t it more enjoyable?
Ferguson had no idea what Su Dong was thinking. He angrily spat out the gum in his mouth and turned around, leaving him with his back.
Isn't it just the Community Shield?
I don’t know how many seats I got, I just don’t care about them at all!
Besides, this thing has a curse. Whoever wins the Community Shield will lose the Premier League championship in the new season.
We at Manchester United don't care about the Community Shield, unlike you, who haven't won it for decades and are naturally hungry for food.
A small family with a small family atmosphere!
…
The game ended with Manchester City winning 3-2, thanks to Su Dong's amazing long-range shot, which defeated the Red Devils Manchester United.
In the post-match press conference, Ferguson still said that the main purpose of this game for Manchester United was to train the players and hone the team's tactics. As for whether they could win the championship, he didn't really care.
Guardiola also said that the team is aiming to train its players, but winning the championship is always a good thing.
"No one will complain about having too many championships, except those who can't eat grapes." Guardiola suddenly stepped on Ferguson's misfortune.
In the subsequent player match ratings given by Sky Sports, the performances of the players from both teams were not particularly ideal.
The best performer for Manchester City was David Silva, who scored eight points.
Kompany was the one who conceded the goal, but he also scored a goal, which made up for his mistake. Goalkeeper Joe Hart got a mediocre six points because he did not contribute anything to either of the two goals.
To be precise, these two goals were not Joe Hart's mistakes, and he cannot be blamed for the losses, but in a tactical framework like Manchester City, being faultless is sometimes unacceptable.
Mistakes are sometimes more permissible.
Just like when he conceded the second goal, Joe Hart did not act decisively.
It was a problem for the defender to miss the man, but being so close to the goal, Joe Hart could have actually made a move, but he didn't.
If this matter just passes like this, then it's fine.
But just after the Community Shield, Joe Hart said in an interview with the media that after the team had the advantage on the field, it was always too easy to expose the goal to the opponent's counterattack.
"I think some of our players should have been more aggressive and brave."
After receiving the news, Guardiola quickly refuted it through the media.
"Joe Hart's job is to guard the goal, not to criticize the team's tactics or his teammates."
"If anyone in the team is qualified to criticize the players and team tactics, it would be me first, followed by the captain, not him!"
This was quickly interpreted by the media as Joe Hart being dissatisfied with the team's tactics and teammates.
As The Sun put it, "The England goalkeeper is tired of having to cover up and take the blame for the team's tactics and his teammates' mistakes. He hopes that Manchester City's defense can protect him more stably."
(End of this chapter)
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