Chapter 931: Terrible Manchester City
As Ferguson said, Manchester United has always been a team that advocates offense.
Red Devil, Red Devil, he can’t live without being crazy.
Manchester United has always been known for its offensive football. Even in some strong dialogues, Manchester United never plays conservatively. It is only when facing Barcelona and Manchester City's passing and controlling style of play that Manchester United has to compromise.
Ferguson is ultimately a pragmatist.
But tonight, in the Manchester derby, when Manchester City scored less than a minute into the game, Manchester United still showed great courage, especially the group of young guys in the midfield and frontcourt, who tried to launch a counterattack.
There is a saying that goes, young and passionate people, welcome to Manchester United.
Ferguson just likes young players like Phil Jones, Ashley Young and Nani who are energetic and motivated.
Manchester United, who launched a massive counterattack, actively avoided Manchester City's center and instead gathered more on the two wings.
Ashley Young and Nani played very actively on both sides, but they encountered a problem after the penalty area reached 30 meters, that is, how to transfer the ball from the side to the middle? Use the side cross?
Please, this is an outdated tactic that has been eliminated by countless teams and is very inefficient.
It was difficult for Welbeck and Rooney to gain an advantage in the penalty area in front of Pepe, Kompany and Javi Martinez.
These days, flank attack is the mainstream, and crosses from the wing are too inefficient.
They launched two counterattacks and only created one foul on the right side of the penalty area.
When Kompany came out to defend Ashley Young, he accidentally moved too much and tripped Manchester United's left forward. He was awarded a free kick in the frontcourt, but the angle was too off and he could only make an indirect pass. Courtois took the initiative and snatched the ball from the air.
After getting the ball, Courtois kept waving his hands, signaling the team to press forward.
The Belgian goalkeeper quickly ran to the front of the penalty area, seized the opportunity, and threw the ball out directly.
Toni Kroos stopped the ball in front of him with his foot, looked forward, and quickly made a long pass over the top.
The German midfielder's sharpest skill, and also the one most valued by Guardiola, is his long pass.
Not only is the ball very accurate, but it also moves very fast, making it very deadly when transferred.
This kind of long pass is a bit like the cavalry in the cold weapon era and the airdrop in the hot weapon era. It directly transfers the sharpest weapon to the opponent's weakest point, and breaks through the opponent's defense line in one go.
That's what Toni Kroos did with this long pass.
He directly transferred the ball behind Manchester United's defense, and Su Dong sprinted forward at the fastest speed. The ball fell at the moment when he shook off Ferdinand, allowing him to kick the ball forward without adjusting.
Is this a coincidence?
No, for top passers, it's a carefully calculated move.
It's just that this kind of precise calculation has become an almost instinctive reaction for them. No matter what kind of ball, what the environment, or who they pass it to, as long as it's a teammate they are familiar with and have a tacit understanding with, they know how to pass it, to which foot, and to which point.
So usually, it is necessary to interfere with these passers.
As long as there is interference, they won't be able to pass the ball so accurately.
If the pass is not accurate, the player receiving the ball will need to make adjustments when stopping the ball.
Adjustment is equivalent to creating more time for the defensive players.
But unfortunately, Manchester United failed to interfere with Toni Kroos in time, but allowed the German midfielder to make a long pass smoothly.
The ball fell right at Su Dong's step, causing him to stop directly forward.
“Single Blade!!!”
There was another cry of surprise at Old Trafford.
Su Dong penetrated Manchester United's defense like a sharp arrow, quickly stopped the ball and dribbled into the penalty area.
De Gea did not hesitate, and decisively abandoned the goal and rushed towards Su Dong, opening his arms as wide as possible.
But just after Su Dong entered the penalty area, he suddenly stopped and caught the ball.
This was completely beyond De Gea's expectations. He had already calculated the distance between himself and Su Dong and their speeds. Su Dong's sudden stop disrupted his pace and plan.
By the time he adjusted himself, Su Dong suddenly started, made a fake move, pretended to cut inside, but suddenly dribbled the ball to the left baseline.
De Gea had no way of distinguishing Su Dong's movements and intentions. After being deceived for a moment, when he reacted, Su Dong had already opened a gap for him. Then he accelerated and rushed over from the left side with the ball.
After dribbling past the goalkeeper, Su Dong was no longer obstructed and shot easily with his left foot.
The ball rolled quickly into Manchester United's goal, and when the ball entered the net, Evans made a tackle and wanted to clear the ball out, but it was too late.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"
"Four minutes later, Manchester City scored another goal, 2-0!"
"Su Dong scored twice!"
"God, his speed is too fast. During the whole sprint process, no Manchester United player could keep up with him. They could only watch him break through and score."
…
If there was anyone who was happiest about Su Dong's goal, it would be head coach Guardiola.
After seeing Su Dong score two goals in a row, he was so excited that he jumped up on the spot, waving his fists non-stop, and almost rushed out of the visiting team coach's command area. After being stopped by the staff, he still raised his hands high and shouted loudly.
He was so excited, so thrilled!
In fact, there were many doubts within the team about the 3-4-3 formation adopted this time. After all, although there are hidden dangers and weaknesses in continuing to adopt the 4-3-3 formation, it is a style of play that Manchester City is more familiar with and the risks are relatively smaller.
But Guardiola doesn't like this kind of safety. He thinks he should take this opportunity to adopt a relatively more innovative tactic that will catch the opponent off guard.
Facing a team like Manchester United, there is a very big risk in playing 3-4-3, and that is defending the flanks.
That's what happened with Kompany's foul on Ashley Young just now.
Therefore, if Manchester City wants to play the 3-4-3 formation well, not only must the defensive players do a good job of defense, but the team's overall defense must also be in place. More importantly, the ball control in the midfield and frontcourt must be maintained.
As long as they can extend their possession time of the ball long enough and shorten Manchester United's possession time of the ball short enough, Manchester United will not have so much time to create offensive opportunities on the wing, and the defensive pressure on Manchester City will be reduced to a minimum.
On the other hand, if Manchester City's ball control is hindered, Manchester United has enough time to control the ball, constantly launch quick counterattacks, and attack Manchester City's flanks in turns, coupled with the incomplete formation, problems will arise sooner or later.
Guardiola is well aware of the natural flaws of the 3-4-3 formation, but he still decided to do it.
Now, Su Dong's two goals ensured Manchester City's advantage and also made him feel relieved.
This is why Heynckes said after Bayern Munich lost the Champions League semi-final last season that Bayern's tolerance for error has been reduced a lot.
With Su Dong's goals and deterrence, the tolerance rate is naturally high, and it doesn't matter if the head coach occasionally makes a fuss.
Joe Hart conceded so many goals last season, but didn't Manchester City still win? ...
In Manchester City's 3-4-3 formation, there is no need to mention the three central defenders in the back line. Javi Martinez is responsible for staying behind, Pepe and Kompany are responsible for rushing forward, and the three players divide the work and cooperate with each other, which can be regarded as complementing each other.
But Guardiola obviously wants to play more extravagantly.
He directly arranged a small diamond formation in the midfield, with Busquets falling back, David Silva and Toni Kroos standing on both sides, and Hazard playing as a forward midfielder.
When the team is attacking with the ball, the entire formation is actually very flat, so it is common for players such as David Silva, Hazard, Toni Kroos, Di Maria and Sanchez to be in a line, and whoever seizes the opportunity will make a move forward.
These Manchester City players all have one obvious characteristic, which is that they are very good at small-scale cooperation.
There is no need to mention Di Maria and Sanchez, both of whom are typical South American players with superb little technical skills. The key is that these two players have strong dribbling ability and can play as wingers, pass the ball and cut inside.
Guardiola said that Hazard is very similar to Messi, which is actually absolutely true.
The size, flexibility and playing characteristics are very similar.
So much so that Guardiola felt that putting him in the winger position was actually sacrificing his ability and talent.
Therefore, on weekdays, he began to try to cooperate with Hazard and Marcelo. To put it simply, let Hazard move more to the middle and give the wing to Marcelo.
In fact, during his time at Lille, Hazard also played as an attacking midfielder and performed very well.
Now, at Manchester City, in Guardiola's 3-4-3 tactics, Hazard plays the role of a small diamond in the midfield.
As you can imagine, there are Di Maria and Sanchez on the two flanks. Both of these players are very hardworking and can pass, dribble and break through. In the middle are Hazard, David Silva, Toni Kroos and Busquets, plus Sudon who can suppress the opponent's defense.
In the game, Manchester City almost easily controlled the ball and crushed Manchester United.
The unlucky Red Devils conceded two goals right after the start of the game and didn't even have the thought of fighting back.
It’s not that they haven’t thought about fighting back, but they don’t have the energy to do so.
When Manchester City directly pushed the ball possession area into Manchester United's 30-meter area, and when Manchester City's players who were very good at small-scale cooperation danced lightly in Manchester United's defensive core area, shuttled back and forth, and slipped away so much that Manchester United's defensive players could only stand in position to block and could hardly catch up with the pass, what could they use to counterattack?
"God, we originally thought that Barcelona's passing and controlling the ball was good enough, but tonight Manchester City showed us another passing and controlling style that is not inferior to Barcelona."
"Oh no, I even think that Manchester City's style of play is better than Barcelona's."
"Manchester United found it difficult to even steal the ball in the face of Manchester City's passing and controlling style of play. They were forced to defend tightly, but even so, Manchester City still frequently entered the penalty area and created threats."
“This is absolutely horrible!”
(End of this chapter)
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