Chapter 939 One Man City
After joining Manchester City for more than a year, Su Dong has personally experienced the biggest difference between Guardiola's passing and control system and Rijkaard's tactical style of play back then.
Stable! It's so stable!
As stable as Mount Tai!
The outside media and fans only see the team's passing and controlling system, but inside the team, all the players see a set of local coordination designs and routines. Through repeated drills in daily training, every player can fully understand them and then be able to play according to the situation on the court.
The former is like a person, and the latter is the capillaries in this person.
The tactics finally put together are Manchester City's entire system.
Guardiola's style of play requires a lot from the players, that is, solid passing and controlling skills, excellent tactical execution, excellent physical fitness, and sufficient patience at all times.
Manchester City looked very unstable last season, but this season, with the strengthening of the bench and the improvement of the lineup, everyone has found that Manchester City basically makes no mistakes.
Of course, this is not surprising.
Look at Manchester City’s ball possession rate this season. The worst is 65 percent. Isn’t that amazing?
The opponents cannot get the ball, especially some weaker opponents who cannot even steal the ball. How can they force Manchester City to make mistakes?
If it weren't for the pitfalls of Joe Hart and David Luiz in the back line, Manchester City would probably have conceded fewer goals.
In addition, there is another thing that Guardiola is very commendable about, and that is the training and transformation of young players.
Javi Martinez only played as a central defender in a three-man defense in one game and won the applause of the whole audience; Douglas Costa also performed well on the wing for Manchester City, but was a little sticky to the ball; young player Trippier has made steady progress and has the potential to compete with Zabaleta for the right-back position in the future. Guardiola even often lets him play as a defensive midfielder in training.
In addition, not to mention young players like Sterling and Bellerin, they are all the focus of Guardiola's training.
These players are all immersed in Guardiola's tactical style of play. Next, they will enter the first team one after another. As long as they perform well, they can become the main force of the first team. This ensures the continuation of Guardiola's tactical style of play in Manchester City.
It can be said that in just over two years, Guardiola has established a stable tactical philosophy at Manchester City.
Perhaps many years later, this style of play will become Manchester City's tradition.
Just like what Cruyff did in Barcelona.
Manchester City's passing and controlling style of play is unique in the high-profile Premier League and is very popular among fans. After all, everyone likes to control the ball at their feet and leave the opponent with no ball to play.
But this approach does not always work and may cause some troubles.
Just like in the twelfth round of the Premier League, Manchester City played against Newcastle at home.
Affected by the two-week national team matches, Guardiola continued to make large-scale rotations for Manchester City, and all the international players who participated in the South American national team matches were left out of the roster.
This is not because of the Champions League in the middle of the week.
Manchester City won four consecutive group stage matches and has already won the championship in advance. They can win or lose the remaining two group stage matches, no one cares.
The real trouble comes in the next three rounds of league games.
The twelfth round is at home against Newcastle, the thirteenth round is away against Liverpool, the fourteenth round is at home against Arsenal, and the fifteenth round is away against Chelsea. All of them are tough battles and every opponent is very difficult.
This is the biggest test for Manchester City.
So much so that Newcastle head coach Alan Padru said when commenting on Manchester City before the game that the next three rounds may very well determine who will win the Premier League title this season, and that they can only rely on defense against Manchester City, but he is not sure that the team can defend.
"The core of Manchester City is Su Dong!"
"Guardiola's tactics bring Manchester City superb passing and control of the ball and stable performance, but Su Dong is Manchester City's key combat force. He alone leads Manchester City forward."
Padru believes that when facing Manchester City, they cannot just fight hard, but must focus on defense, especially on restricting Su Dong.
The Magpies' head coach said this and did it.
This also allowed Newcastle to block Manchester City's offensive in the first half.
Until the end of the first half.
…………
…………
When the game reached the 41st minute, Manchester City passed the ball back and forth patiently near Newcastle's 30-meter area.
The Magpies were helpless and could only focus on defending and guarding against Manchester City's penetrating passes.
But Manchester City still created a gap on the left.
After getting the ball, Hazard suddenly started, shook off the defender, and cut inside to the left side of the penalty area.
Su Dong turned his back to the direction of attack and immediately retreated to the top of the arc and raised his hand to ask for the ball.
Hazard passed the ball, Su Dong leaned on Kolocchini and Stephen Taylor with his body, stopped the ball steadily, knocked it back to David Silva, and turned around to move forward.
David Silva understood what he meant and passed the ball behind him without stopping.
Su Dong turned around and shook off Stephen Taylor, quickly rushed into Newcastle's penalty area, stopped the ball, used his body to push Coloccini away, made a slight adjustment, and kicked the ball directly.
The poor little Argentine lion king was at an absolute disadvantage in terms of height and strength. After being pushed away by Su Dong, he used his hands and feet to try to pull Su Dong and prevent him from scoring, but Su Dong kicked the ball directly.
The ball went in a straight line and went into the lower left corner of the goal.
Faced with the shot that was so close, goalkeeper Krul could only watch the ball and sigh, unable to do anything.
One to zero!
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"
Su Dong rushed out of the stadium and ran all the way to the bottom of the chairman's stand. He kissed the ring on his left hand hard and raised it high above his head.
At this moment, more than 40,000 Manchester City fans in the entire Etihad Stadium were all shouting Su Dong's name, and many fans even shouted slogans to congratulate him on his marriage. They had obviously got the news from the media.
"Su Dong revealed for the first time in a previous interview that he will get married after the season ends."
"Since he joined Manchester City, his fiancée has appeared in almost every home game of Manchester City. The two are hailed as a match made in heaven by Manchester City fans and are also dubbed as Manchester City's Beckham and Victoria by the media."
"Of course, there are also many people who are not convinced, because Su Dong's football skills are better than Beckham's, and his fiancée is a top student from the Law School of Oxford University, favored by many of the world's top law firms. Whether in terms of appearance or talent, she is obviously better than Victoria."
"So, we prefer to admit that he belongs to Manchester City, an enhanced version of Beckham and Victoria."
…
Less than four minutes after breaking the deadlock, just when the game had just entered the stoppage time, Manchester City launched another offensive. Douglas Costa on the right took the ball and advanced to the right corner of the penalty area, where he was chased and blocked by the opponent.
Su Dong ran over to receive the ball and passed it back to Toni Kroos.
The ball was still under Manchester City's organization, but it advanced to the front of the penalty area.
Toni Kroos passed the ball to David Silva, who got rid of his defender and passed the ball to Su Dong who was running towards the middle from the right and raised his hand for the ball.
Su Dong accelerated without stopping the ball, and pushed it forward, using his speed to break through Kolochini's defense. On the right side of the top of the penalty area, he made a diagonal pass with his left foot and sent the ball to the left side of the penalty area.
Hazard cut into the penalty area from the left rib, dribbled past the defender when he stopped the ball, and then shot directly with his right foot.
The ball quickly went into the right side of Newcastle's goal, 2-0! The Belgian winger was so excited that he jumped up on the spot and rushed to the sidelines to celebrate.
Su Dong and other teammates quickly followed and celebrated the goal with laughter.
"In less than five minutes, Manchester City scored two goals."
"In the first 40 minutes or so, Newcastle's defense was very solid, but as the game progressed, the consumption became greater and greater, and Newcastle's players began to be unable to keep up with Manchester City's rhythm and pace, which put them in a passive and backward position in the game."
"Manchester City played very patiently and kept their most familiar rhythm, constantly organizing and launching attacks towards Newcastle, which led to the explosion in the final stage."
"Su Dong made one assist and one goal, once again proving himself to be an indispensable link in Manchester City's attack."
…
Thanks to Su Dong's pass and one shot, Manchester City took a two-goal lead and ended the first half of the game.
After the second half, Newcastle finally caught their breath and reorganized an effective defensive formation.
But Manchester City still slowly controlled the ball and the tempo, and was not in a hurry to fight with the opponent.
This is where Manchester City are stable.
With over 75 percent of the ball possession, Manchester City slowly engaged in a war of attrition with Newcastle. In the end, it would be Newcastle that could not hold on, while Manchester City patiently waited for their chance.
It was not until the 77th minute that David Silva made another straight pass to the right. Douglas Costa dribbled into the penalty area and fell to the ground after being fouled by the opponent. The referee was very observant and awarded a penalty kick.
Aguero, who replaced Su Dong, scored in one fell swoop and scored another goal for Manchester City, 3-0! At this time, the game had completely lost its suspense.
But in the final stages, Manchester City had an attack and Aguero almost scored, but unfortunately it was slightly off target.
Newcastle took advantage of Manchester City's defensive lapses and created a chance to shoot in the penalty area.
When Demba Ba quickly moved forward and shot, the ball was saved by goalkeeper Courtois, and the ball fell at the feet of Gosling, who came on as a substitute on the right. When the latter shot again, he was blocked with one hand by Courtois who fell to the ground and then stood up to save the ball again.
Courtois showed his amazing strength by making two consecutive world-class saves.
Especially when there was not much threat throughout the game, it was particularly rare to be able to make such consecutive top saves at the last minute.
Even Guardiola on the sidelines couldn't help but applaud and cheer for Courtois.
The Belgian goalkeeper's position has become more secure.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
