Chapter 902 When "Guardiola" meets Guardiola
On the evening of August 15th, at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester.
The players have already held the hands of the ball boys and, led by the referee Mike Dean and amid the cheers of the fans, have walked into the stadium, about to kick off the first game of the new Premier League season.
Thirty-eight-year-old Brendan Rodgers stood inside the player tunnel with a serious face, his eyes fixed on the exit in front of him, trying to calm himself down.
Tonight, he was dressed very formally, in a black suit and tie, with a pocket handkerchief in the breast pocket of his suit. His hair was combed meticulously on his high hairline, and he looked very ceremonial.
This is the Premier League he has been waiting for for many years!
This is also a game he has been looking forward to for a long time! …
Although only thirty-eight years old, Rogers has been coaching for seventeen years.
That year he was 20 years old and had to retire early due to injury, so he went to take coaching courses.
In 1994, he joined the Reading youth team and gradually rose to the positions of youth training director and first team assistant coach.
That was the pinnacle moment of La Liga football.
At the turn of the century, Bosque's Real Madrid, Irureta's Super Deportivo, Cooper and Benítez's Valencia, and later Rijkaard's Barcelona, all these teams have achieved great fame in European football.
All knowledgeable people basically agree that Spanish football is as strong as Serie A, which is a small World Cup.
It was also during that period that Rogers often traveled to Spain to study under the pretext of learning Spanish, but his main purpose was to learn and understand Spanish football, which opened up a new world for him.
Because he is fluent in Spanish and familiar with Spanish and Iberian Peninsula football, in 2004, when Mourinho took over Chelsea and Chelsea launched a vigorous youth training reform, Rogers was hired to Chelsea and served as the head coach of the 18-year-old youth team. Two years later, he was promoted to head coach of the reserve team.
In November 2009, the Championship team Watford had poor results. After head coach Boothroyd was sacked, assistant coach Malky Mackay took over for five games, but the results were still not ideal, so they found Rogers from Chelsea's reserve team.
His results as coach at Watford were not bad, but after the end of the season, Rogers was replaced by assistant coach Malky Mackay, and Rogers returned to coach his old club Reading, who were aiming to impact the Premier League, but he was fired before the winter break.
After being sacked by Reading, it took Rogers half a year to find his next job.
Unlike Reading, a Premier League powerhouse that made it to the Premier League, Swansea is a mid-table team that was promoted to the Championship from the third level only two years ago. Its results have been hovering in the upper middle. Its previous two head coaches were Spaniard Martinez and Portuguese Paulo Sousa.
These two head coaches not only led Swansea to good performance in League One and the Championship, but also injected the football genes of the Iberian Peninsula into the team. So after sending away these two head coaches, Swansea decisively chose Rogers.
This time, the two sides hit it off.
No one expected that after one year as coach of Swansea, Rogers successfully led the team to go one step further, entered the promotion zone, and defeated Nottingham Forest and his old club Reading in the play-offs, successfully promoted to the Premier League.
It can be said that Rogers' coaching career so far is an inspirational novel of accumulation and development.
Deeply influenced by Spanish football, Rogers particularly admires Barcelona's football style.
Control the ball, transfer, create space...
Barcelona's football philosophy has a profound influence on Rogers.
Even as early as last season, when Guardiola led Manchester City to success, Rogers made no secret of the fact that he was a fan of Guardiola and he liked Guardiola's football very much.
But no one thought at that time that the first game after Rogers led the team to promotion to the Premier League would be against Guardiola's Manchester City.
…
Rogers straightened his suit, took a deep breath, and walked towards the player tunnel.
As the team's performance improves, Manchester City's home attendance is extremely high, especially after the stadium expansion, the home capacity is close to 50,000 people, and it is now full.
Rogers was not popular among Manchester City fans and was booed as soon as he came out.
He has gotten used to this.
No English team's home fans will like the visiting manager.
After walking out of the player tunnel, Rogers quickly turned his head to look at the home team's coaching bench, and found that Guardiola was already walking towards him. He immediately greeted him with a smile.
"Hello, Brendan."
"Nice to meet you, Josep."
The two greeted each other at the same time, but interestingly, Guardiola used English while Rodgers used Spanish.
This made both teams laugh at the same time.
The same football philosophy led the two to discuss each other's tactics on the sidelines, which was somewhat confrontational.
The resources and support that Guardiola can get at Manchester City are impossible for Rogers to get at Swansea.
For example, he doesn't have a super center forward like Su Dong, so he can only choose shooters like Daniel Graham, attackers on the wing, players like David Silva, and characters like Toni Kroos.
All of these are things that Swansea City cannot have.
As the head coach, Rogers could only make compromises on the tactical level and had no way to fully realize his ideas.
Guardiola also expressed his agreement and respect. After all, it is not easy to lead a team like Swansea to be promoted to the Premier League. You know, four years ago, the team was still in the third level. This is the first time in Swansea's history that it has been promoted to the Premier League.
"But when the game really starts, we won't hold back."
Rogers smiled awkwardly. When he came to Manchester, he was actually mentally prepared to lose.
"Last season in the Championship, you had a very fatal problem, that is, you played very well at home, but played very badly away. This has a lot to do with your tactics. I hope you have made up for this shortcoming this summer, otherwise..."
Guardiola didn't finish his words, but the tit-for-tat was already obvious.
Rodgers could only smile bitterly because his players were limited in strength. Even in the Championship, it was difficult for them to maintain a high level of passing and controlling the ball at home and away like Manchester City did, because all teams always had a more difficult time playing away from home.
"We came here with an attitude of learning," Rogers said with a smile.
Guardiola looked at Rogers deeply and nodded politely, "Good luck."
"The same to you."
The two head coaches separated on the sidelines and returned to the coaching area.
…………
…………
Rogers said Swansea came with an attitude of learning.
This is obviously a scam.
From the start of the game, Swansea City showed exactly why they were called the Manchester City team of the Championship last season.
The team used high-pressure tactics without mercy and launched a fierce attack on Manchester City.
Manchester City also attaches great importance to the debut of the new season. Except for the goalkeeper being replaced by Courtois from Joe Hart, the main players in every other position continue to be the same as last season, with basically no changes.
But even so, Swansea's high-pressure pressing still caused Manchester City a lot of trouble.
It’s not that Manchester City’s players lack tacit understanding or something, but it’s the first game of the new season and the players generally haven’t got into the form yet. Swansea’s high-intensity pressing and oppression have had an impact on Manchester City, causing the team to make a lot of passing errors.
Especially from the sixth minute, Swansea launched continuous attacks.
In the 4-2-3-1 formation, shadow striker Dobby, who was lurking behind center forward Graham, made a sudden long shot towards Manchester City's goal, but goalkeeper Courtois dived sideways outside the small penalty area and blocked the ball. After the Belgian goalkeeper landed, he jumped up again and hugged the ball under him before Graham.
This wonderful save won Courtois warm applause from the fans.
In the 12th minute, Swansea counterattacked again. Left-back Tate quickly came back and sent a cross. Dobby volleyed the ball in front of the penalty area with great force, but Courtois saved it over the crossbar.
The Belgian goalkeeper won the second round of applause from the audience.
Guardiola also applauded him on the sidelines, but at the same time he was dissatisfied with the performance of the players on the field.
Everyone can see that Swansea players got into the rhythm and form earlier than Manchester City players.
In the first fifteen minutes, Manchester City's possession rate was only a pitiful 40 percent.
After Swansea's two attacks, especially the two shots, Manchester City's players gradually got into the game and found the rhythm of the game.
Especially the midfield.
Under Swansea's high-pressure pressing, the team began to find the rhythm of passing and controlling the ball and played very patiently.
By continuously passing the ball back and forth, and even passing it back, he patiently controlled the ball and pulled the Swansea players along.
Especially after 20 minutes, Swansea's high-intensity and fast-paced pressing and pressing consumed too much energy, and they were obviously unable to keep up, because they also needed to reasonably allocate their physical energy for the whole game, and it was impossible to consume all the physical energy in one go. How could they play next? Just stand still and let the opponent slaughter them? But just when Swansea was about to slow down the pace and try to catch their breath, Manchester City gradually took the initiative and pressed forward the defense line, especially in the ball possession area. Busquets even pressed over the center line and directly controlled the ball outside the 30-meter area of Swansea.
In the 23rd minute, Busquets received a pass from his teammate, suddenly seized the opportunity, and sent a deadly medium-long pass to the right side of the penalty area.
Su Dong used his body to block Swansea's central defender Cockell. After stopping the ball steadily, he suddenly turned around, shook off Cockell, and cut inside with the ball sideways.
Without waiting for another central defender Williams to come forward to fill the position, Su Dong suddenly shot with his left foot from the top right side of the penalty area, kicking a powerful arc ball that went straight to the upper left corner of the goal.
This sudden shot shocked everyone.
Swansea goalkeeper Worm even flew to the side and tried to kick the ball out.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
