Chapter 930 has that flavor!
Courtois, Kompany, Pepe, Busquets, Sanchez, Toni Kroos, Sudon, David Silva, Di Maria, Hazard, Javi Martinez.
Ferguson was very surprised when he looked at Manchester City's starting lineup in front of him.
Although there was no positional diagram listed on the list and no tactical positioning for each player, Ferguson was familiar with Manchester City and was able to immediately discover the unexpected aspects of the list.
That is without full-backs.
Neither Marcelo nor Zabaleta appeared in the starting lineup, but sat on the bench.
Instead, Pepe and Kompany started at the same time, with Javi Martinez also appearing.
According to Guardiola's use of Javi Martinez this season, the Spanish midfielder is obviously going to be transformed into a central defender. Does this mean that Manchester City will arrange three central defenders in this game? No full-backs, three central defenders, is this to copy the three-back system during Cruyff and Van Gaal's time?
When Cruyff and Van Gaal coached Barcelona and Ajax, they both used three defenders. As tactics evolved, this style of play gradually fell out of favor. It has been more than ten years since the three-defender style has become popular.
With the speed of development in today's information age, this set of fighting methods can be classified as an ancient strange formation.
Ferguson had experienced the era of Cruyff and Van Gaal and had seen all kinds of tactical play, so he remembered it immediately, and he guessed that Guardiola wanted to use a 3-4-3 formation.
But this brings up a question, when has Manchester City ever adopted this style of play?
Ferguson put the question to assistant coach Mike Phelan, but he also did not get the information.
"Since Javi Martinez joined the team, Manchester City has never played with three at the back." Mike Phelan is a responsible assistant coach. He has prepared all the necessary information, otherwise he would not have been promoted to Ferguson's right-hand man.
The Dutch assistant coach René Meulensteen also nodded repeatedly. Although he was responsible for training and technology, pre-match preparation was also part of his job, so he was naturally very clear about it.
"That's strange. We haven't played this game on weekdays, but why did they suddenly change the formation today?" Ferguson was a little puzzled.
Could it be that Guardiola was worried about the outcome and wanted to take a risk because of the psychological pressure? Ferguson has been coaching for so many years and is no stranger to this situation.
Many times, fans and the media will criticize a head coach for changing the formation on the spot, and even think that he is stupid, but these are the opinions of laymen. In the professional coaching circle, no one really thinks so.
None of the head coaches who can become top league coaches are fools, and none of them are weak.
Just like Guardiola at this moment, he suddenly changed his formation, there are only two reasons.
One is that something unexpected happened within the Manchester City team that outsiders were not aware of, forcing him to change the formation; the other is that he had actually been prepared for this for a long time.
But considering the past period of time, Guardiola has never played with three defenders, so it is obviously not the latter, but the former.
What happened to Manchester City? Will it be an opportunity for Manchester United?
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In fact, nothing happened to Manchester City.
Guardiola would suddenly want to adopt a three-man defense purely because his entanglement syndrome has struck again.
Manchester City's three defenders have actually been working together for a long time, but this has mainly been done in the team's daily training and has never been used in official matches, so naturally the outside world has no way of knowing.
But this style of play was determined when Guardiola decided to bring in Javi Martinez.
Manchester City always insists on passing and controlling the ball as the core style of play, so no matter how the team's tactics change or how the formation is adjusted, there will basically be no major problems, and it always revolves around passing and controlling the ball.
It was just that this time when facing Manchester United, Guardiola suddenly decided to adopt this style of play, which was really surprising.
The reason for this is also related to the team's current shortage of full-backs.
Bellerin and Trippier are still a little immature, Zabaleta has been fighting on multiple fronts, as has Marcelo, and Leighton Baines is injured, which makes Manchester City's full-backs a little nervous.
Guardiola felt that instead of exposing the flanks to the opponent, it would be better to change the formation proactively.
Is there any risk in changing the formation? Playing with three defenders means freeing up the wing positions, which will definitely give Manchester United's Ashley Young and Nani more room to play, while also placing higher demands on the three central defenders.
As for the benefits, they are also very obvious.
With one less person in the back line, there is one more person in the midfield and frontcourt, which will be more advantageous for Manchester City in passing and controlling the ball.
To put it simply, this style of play is more aggressive, and it depends on how effective it is.
…
Before going on the court, Su Dong stood in the locker room, his eyes slowly passing over every teammate around him.
Everyone's face was filled with solemnity because they all felt the importance of this game.
Previous Manchester derbies did not carry much weight because City were not qualified to challenge Manchester United.
But all of this has completely changed since the massacre last season.
In the past, Manchester United looked at Manchester City with disdain, thinking it was just a "noisy neighbor", but now, they truly regard Manchester City as a competitor in the league.
Given the current situation in the Premier League, it is impossible for neither Manchester City nor Manchester United to give up this derby.
As Ferguson said, this is not three points, but six points.
"Everyone!" Su Dong shouted in a deep voice, "I hope that everyone can perform at their best tonight and strive to teach Manchester United another painful lesson at Old Trafford. In this way, I believe that from now on, they will not dare to underestimate us anymore."
"We will use another hearty victory to tell Manchester United and everyone that we are not noisy neighbors, we are Manchester United's mortal enemy!"
The players in the locker room cheered in unison.
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With the referee's whistle, Welbeck kicked the ball to Rooney and Manchester United took the first kick-off.
After getting the ball, Rooney did not pass it back to his own half, but took the ball directly into Manchester City's half, trying to force Manchester City's formation, but Hazard, who was the first to be attacked, rushed towards Rooney.
The England striker quickly kicked the ball to his own right and passed it to Nani.
Nani stopped the ball on the wing and was about to dribble forward when he found that David Silva had already pressed forward. Together with Di Maria, they trapped Nani on the wing and kicked the ball directly out of bounds.
Smalling came forward, took the ball on the wing, and threw it to Fletcher with both hands.
Fletcher stopped the ball and Di Maria was already near him. Manchester City's pressing in the midfield was very strong, forcing Fletcher to pass the ball back to central defender Evans.
But in the middle, Su Dong was like an arrow, quickly approaching Evans, forcing him to pass the ball back to goalkeeper De Gea.
After Evans passed the ball back, he tried to avoid Su Dong to meet De Gea, and immediately ran along the penalty area line to Manchester City's right side, which is his own left side, widening the distance between the two central defenders and making it easier for De Gea to pass the ball.
Su Dong did not continue to harass Evans, but suddenly accelerated and rushed directly towards the penalty area.
De Gea received the pass from Evans on the left side of the small penalty area. He just stopped and had no time to react when he saw Su Dong suddenly accelerating towards him. This frightened him. He took the ball sideways to the left two steps and made a long pass with his left foot.
Su Dong kicked out to block, but was a beat too late.
Although he failed to grab the ball, Su Dong was not discouraged. He grinned at De Gea and quickly ran back.
He couldn't afford to put himself in an offside position.
De Gea's pass was not passed far due to Su Dong's interference, but only landed in the area outside his own 30-meter area, and was just caught by David Silva who was chasing him.
After David Silva grabbed the ball, he immediately moved forward, and Fletcher and Nani approached him at the same time.
When Di Maria saw Su Dong on the left, he immediately ran to the middle, pulling away the defensive players, while preparing to receive the pass from David Silva. Su Dong had just run out of the offside position and was standing in the left corner of the penalty area. He immediately pointed to the middle, ready to receive the pass from David Silva.
Under the defense of two defensive players, Fletcher and Nani, David Silva was caught up after just two steps, but before passing the ball, he saw Su Dong's gesture and immediately passed the ball to the left side of the penalty area designated by Su Dong.
Su Dong, who was originally in the left corner of the penalty area, suddenly shook off Smalling, sprinted sideways, and kicked David Silva's pass to the middle before Ferdinand who was rushing to the ball.
The poke was light, just enough to avoid Ferdinand and adjust the direction of the ball.
After Su Dong used his body to block Ferdinand, he caught up with the football on the left side of the top of the penalty area. Without stopping the ball, he shot directly with his right foot.
After kicking the ball, Su Dong flew into the air.
He almost used up all his strength.
The ball passed by Evans at lightning speed and went straight into the right side of Manchester United's goal before De Gea could make any save.
At this time, there were only thirty-six seconds left before the game started! "GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!"
“Too fast!!!!”
"Manchester City scored against Manchester United in just 36 seconds!!!"
"My God, this is unbelievable!"
“One to zero!”
"It took Su Dong only 36 seconds to score against Manchester United. He amazed us all!"
"Manchester City adopted a step-by-step pressing tactic against Manchester United after the opening, and De Gea made a mistake in passing the ball under Su Dong's pressure, and passed the ball directly to David Silva, which gave Manchester City the opportunity to quickly counterattack."
"Once upon a time, goalkeeper was the most solid position for Manchester United, but now, De Gea has become the weakest weakness in Manchester United's lineup. We even suspect that Manchester City has developed a pressing tactic specifically for De Gea, which forced the Spanish goalkeeper to make mistakes and created scoring opportunities for Manchester City."
"Manchester United conceded a goal within a minute of the start."
“How will Ferguson deal with this situation next?”
"The Manchester derby finally feels like home!"
(End of this chapter)
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