Chapter 905: God's Massacre
Su Dong unplugs Tottenham!
The Mirror used this headline as the headline on the front page of the next day, with Su Dong as the cover, summarizing the crazy massacre that took place at White Hart Lane last night.
"The weather forecast was realistic. It was sunny at White Hart Lane the day after the game. It was a rare good day, but it certainly couldn't heal the pain in the hearts of Tottenham Hotspur fans."
The Mirror begins with this sentence, telling the story of a cruel tragedy.
Tottenham Hotspur, playing at home, did show the will to fight back. In fact, at the beginning of the game, Tottenham Hotspur once posed a lot of threats to Manchester City. However, due to the players' poor ability to seize opportunities and the outstanding performance of Manchester City's young goalkeeper Courtois, Tottenham Hotspur's attacks were unsuccessful time and time again.
"Redknapp has always been very stable in his use of troops, but in this battle at White Hart Lane, he showed unprecedented courage, using an almost gambling-like deployment of troops to engage in a head-to-head contest with Manchester City, aiming to dampen Manchester City's spirit at home."
According to the Mirror, there is a reason why Tottenham Hotspur took such a risk.
First, the schedule.
Tottenham will be suspended after the third round and will have two weeks of national team match days, but Manchester City will not be able to do so. They will also have to focus on the European Super Cup, and their opponent is a strong team of Barcelona's level.
"From the management to the coaching staff to the players, Manchester City is full of grievances with Barcelona, so Manchester City cannot hold back in the match against Barcelona, but will definitely go all out to win. This is a must."
Redknapp knew this clearly, so he concluded that Guardiola would rotate and conserve his strength in the game against Tottenham, and he concluded that Manchester City's performance would be affected.
Facts have proved that he guessed correctly. Guardiola did rotate the players, and the intensity was very strong.
Secondly, Tottenham is playing at home and is well rested. There is no pressure of the game afterwards, so they can completely let go and fight Manchester City to the death. It can be said that the time, place and people are all right. Redknapp also anticipated many advantages and decided to give it a try and adopt an offensive tactic.
The Mirror believes that judging from the pre-match analysis, not only Redknapp thinks so, but many other analysis experts, including several major bookmakers, also think so. They basically conclude that Manchester City has a slight advantage and a draw is very likely.
But everyone guessed one thing wrong, which was underestimating the depth of Manchester City's bench this season.
According to the Mirror analysis, a very important reason why Manchester City crushed Tottenham away from home was in the first half.
Tottenham tried to take advantage of Manchester City's unstable footing and rotated the lineup. Many players started for the first time this season, so Redknapp wanted to make a direct attack on Manchester City. This tactic was understandable.
"It was the second time that Courtois started this season. If we say that he didn't perform many times in the first round against Swansea and the difficulty was not too great, then in this game against Tottenham, the Belgian teenager showed a brilliant performance. Whether it was high blocking or low receiving, he seemed to be at ease."
The Mirror also mentioned a less familiar statistic, which is the goalkeeper's pass success rate.
Against Swansea, Courtois' pass success rate was 74%, which seems to be average, but in the match against Tottenham Hotspur, the Belgian goalkeeper's pass success rate increased to 79%, and Courtois ranked first in the Premier League in terms of average number of passes per game.
In contrast, Joe Hart's average pass success rate last season was a pitiful 54%. In the two games this season, his best figure was 56%, which was Manchester City's away game against Bolton.
In terms of the number of passes, Joe Hart is close to Courtois, but the pass success rate is far apart.
Of course, Joe Hart has one statistic that is very advantageous over Courtois, and that is long passes.
The Belgian goalkeeper had very few long passes, but his success rate was only 30 percent, far lower than Joe Hart's 46 percent.
The Mirror believes that it is obvious that Guardiola prefers to use Courtois, and the key lies in the pass success rate. Joe Hart's pass success rate is really too bad. He has been specially trained for more than two years, but has never been able to improve.
"His pass success rate is similar to that of goalkeepers from mid- to lower-level teams, which seriously drags down Manchester City's overall passing efficiency."
As of now, Courtois may not be the most suitable for Manchester City's needs, but on the one hand, he is only nineteen years old. On the other hand, he is indeed more suitable than Joe Hart, and whether it is goalkeeping skills or characteristics, he has advantages over Joe Hart.
The Mirror believes that Courtois played an indispensable role in Manchester City's ability to withstand Tottenham's attack in the early stages of the game.
So after this game, Sky Sports gave Courtois a high score of eight points, an improvement from the seven points in the previous game.
If Courtois represents stability on defense, then on the offensive end, Su Dong's four goals in one must be played.
"We are all used to Su Dong's goals, but in this game, we saw a completely different offensive style from Manchester City, which was a more delicate combination."
"Hazard scored a hat trick in his Premier League debut. With three wonderful assists, he made everyone remember his name and let everyone feel the strength of Manchester City's bench."
"In just one game, he showed his strength in the dribbling charts. Every time he got the ball on the court, he was creating a threat, forcing Tottenham to devote more energy to marking him. In this way, Su Dong in the penalty area and David Silva at the front of the penalty area had more opportunities."
The Mirror believes that Sudon won the best player of the match after the game. This is his third time to win the best player of the match, but the most amazing thing about this game was Hazard who played the whole game.
"Twenty-five million euros? Manchester City got a great bargain!"
…………
…………
Not only did the Mirror report this, but the Times also believed that although only three rounds of the league had been played, Manchester City had already demonstrated very strong championship competitiveness.
"This team, which won the first Premier League title in the club's history last season, is now racing towards defending its title!"
The Times believes that Su Dong's outstanding performance is the key to Manchester City's three consecutive victories.
More importantly, Manchester City scored 19 goals in the first three rounds, and Su Dong scored nine of them alone, with two assists. In other words, he created half of Manchester City's goals.
"Many people will certainly think that the proportion of goals created by Su Dong to the team's total goals has dropped significantly compared to last season, but we must see that Su Dong's goals have increased significantly compared to the same period last season."
The Times believes that this is due to the improved strength of Manchester City's bench.
Aguero became Manchester City's second-highest scorer after Su Dong, but he always came on as a substitute and still could not shake Su Dong's main position.
Flowers still need green leaves to complement them.
The Times believes that Manchester City was very dependent on Su Dong last season, and it could even be said that Su Dong was dragging the team forward.
But there has been a very obvious change this season, that is, the pressure on Su Dong has been reduced, and he can play with ease.
Whether it is against Swansea, Bolton, or Tottenham Hotspur, everyone can clearly see that Su Dong no longer needs to fight so hard on the court.
"The most obvious statistic is the running distance. Su Dong's range of activities has been significantly reduced compared to last season, and his reduced range of activities has been filled by his teammates."
In fact, last season, the Times used data more than once to remind Manchester City that they had used Su Dong too much. Now, this authoritative media believes that Manchester City's tactical adjustments this season have reduced Su Dong's burden.
"Su Dong, who was lightly equipped, used three brilliant victories to prove his strength to the world, and also let mortals including you and me witness one thrilling and bloody massacre after another by the gods!"
Manchester City's overall technical and tactical skills this season are indeed better than last season, especially their passing and ball control abilities and their ability to create opportunities.
After the league started, every team was like a high-speed train, unable to stop until the end.
In the Bundesliga and La Liga, there is still a winter break for some adjustments, but in the Premier League, there is not even a winter break. After the season starts, all teams can only rush forward.
"Many times, even if the head coach knows that the team has problems, there is no time to stop and slowly make adjustments. All he can do is cover up all the problems as much as possible, constantly improve and make up for them."
"After a season of training, Manchester City, from head coach Guardiola to the players, have obviously improved a lot. Especially after winning the treble, the confidence boost it brought to all the players in the team has made them have very significant changes."
"This season, Manchester City has truly become a Premier League title contender and a European powerhouse!"
But the Times also believes that Manchester City's foundation is weaker, but the treble created last season was not an accidental outbreak, because Manchester City's players are relatively young. After a season of training, the players' strength and level have obviously improved. Coupled with the management's big signings this summer and an investment of over 100 million yuan, Manchester City's strength has been leaps and bounds improved.
"From the first three rounds, Manchester City is undoubtedly the team with the best chance of winning the championship. Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, the two London teams, have basically lost the possibility of winning the championship."
"So far, the only teams that can pose a threat to Manchester City are Ferguson's Manchester United, Villas-Boas' Chelsea and Dalglish's Liverpool."
"And there is no doubt that among the 20 Premier League teams, Manchester City has the greatest chance of winning the championship."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
