Chapter 953 Let me do it!
When the game reached the 58th minute, Guardiola made the first substitution of the game.
He replaced Milner with Aguero.
This is a signal to strengthen the team's frontcourt offense.
Hodgson on the opposite side also responded quickly, replacing forward Odemwingie with midfielder No. 17 Graham Dorrance. Although Dorrance is good at both offense and defense, replacing a striker with a midfielder is itself a signal of defense.
Both head coaches are using their own methods. Guardiola wants to attack, while Hodgson wants to stabilize the defense.
The game continued to be deadlocked.
In any regular football game, defense is always easier than offense and requires less from the players. This is why almost all weak teams adopt defensive counterattack tactics rather than actively attacking.
Goals need to be created, while defense only needs to be destroyed.
This is why football reforms have always been encouraging offense and goals.
Some people say that football tactics are spirals.
In fact, we can look at it this way: with the development of science and technology and the advent of the information age, the means and capabilities of training players are constantly improving. From diet to physical training, from various data analysis, these have brought about earth-shaking changes in player training.
This results in players' bodies becoming faster and stronger.
So the question is, will control of the ball improve with the progress of the times?
The answer is no! Pele and Maradona are rare geniuses. Their playing styles and bodies have changed, but they are still rare super geniuses.
There will always be only a handful of players who can control the football as skillfully as these geniuses on the field.
As the times progress, defense will become stronger, pressure will become tighter, and the space left for offensive players will become smaller and smaller. Everything will always develop in the direction that is more beneficial to defense.
Therefore, it is necessary to encourage offense through reform.
The same logic applies to a football match, especially a football match on Boxing Day. When both teams are in poor form and unable to score a goal, the defensive side actually has the advantage.
But after Manchester City replaced Aguero, the performance still did not improve much.
Guardiola placed Aguero in a position similar to midfielder and attacking midfielder, hoping that he could make runs from behind, roam behind and around Su Dong, ready to seize opportunities at any time, but his performance was not ideal.
After playing for about ten minutes, Su Dong communicated with Guardiola on the sidelines, found Aguero, and exchanged positions with him.
"You push forward, and I'll retreat."
After saying that, Su Dong ran back to the midfield without waiting for Aguero's agreement.
The Argentine striker was a little bit unconvinced. Was Su Dong going to pass the ball to him?
He felt flattered, which made him feel even more powerful as he pushed forward in the front court.
But soon, Aguero found that he was overthinking.
…
When the game reached the 77th minute, when Manchester City was slowly passing the ball in the midfield, West Bromwich Albion had already organized a tight defense and the pace of the game slowed down.
Just as Thiago was lagging behind and holding the ball, looking for a passing point, he saw Su Dong running back and raising his hand to ask for the ball.
Thiago passed the ball to Su Dong almost without thinking.
Behind Su Dong was Dorrance, who had just come on as a substitute and was performing very vigorously and running very actively.
But before Dorrance could get close, Su Dong pulled the ball directly, stopped and turned, immediately blocked Dorrance on his side, and kicked the ball to Aguero in front of him.
"Hold on, let me do it!" Su Dong shouted.
Aguero ran over to catch the ball. After hearing Su Dong's shout, he subconsciously stepped on the ball. Then he felt a majestic figure rushing towards him like the wind. The pressure coming towards him made him feel suffocated.
His feet felt light, and he felt the ball he had just stepped on was poked away by Su Dong.
Su Dong's explosive power was too fast! When Aguero reacted and looked over, he had already increased his speed, carrying the ball, and approaching the West Bromwich Albion defense line. In the top area of the penalty area, facing the central defender Olsen of the harem pants, he suddenly stopped and flicked the ball to the right. After avoiding Olsen, he caught up with another central defender Macaulay to block and shot with his right foot.
From starting to sudden stop and change of direction, to shooting, everything happened in an instant.
By the time everyone reacted, the ball had already penetrated West Bromwich's defense like a flash of lightning, flew between the two central defenders, and went into the lower right corner of the goal.
Goalkeeper Foster dived sideways, but it was too late.
The ball hit the net! "GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"
"Another long-range shot from Su Dong!"
"At the top of the penalty area, Su Dong fired a powerful shot into West Bromwich's goal!"
"So beautiful! So exciting!"
"In the 77th minute, Manchester City finally broke the deadlock, one to zero!"
After Su Dong scored a goal, he clenched his fists, raised them high above his head, and roared.
The surrounding Manchester City players also chased after him.
Aguero stood there, staring at Su Dong in a daze, as if he was looking at God.
He now finally understood why Su Dong would take the initiative to request a retreat.
It turned out that it was not to pass the ball to him, but because they couldn't stand the fact that he failed to change the course of the game after coming on as a substitute and to share the defensive pressure with him, so they just let him do it himself and let themselves take the lead.
When Aguero thought of this, he felt a little ashamed, but more of admiration.
He always knew that Su Dong was very strong, but this time he was really too strong, and he couldn't help but admire him.
Just then, a teammate rushed up from Aguero's side, waking the Argentine striker up, and he immediately ran towards Su Dong.
…………
…………
Su Dong's goal opened the door to victory for Manchester City.
After conceding the goal, West Bromwich Albion did think about counterattacking, but Hodgson was obviously very clear that it was impossible for his team to defend their goal while counterattacking.
So in the end, the Knickers gave up the counterattack and continued to concentrate on defending, waiting for Manchester City to make a mistake.
In the end, Manchester City defeated West Bromwich Albion 1-0 away from home thanks to Su Dong's goal.
As the team's goal scorer, Su Dong took the initiative to accept media interviews after the game and defended many teammates who performed poorly in this game. He said that many Manchester City players were not yet accustomed to the intensive schedule during the winter break, and it was Boxing Day, so the team's overall performance was not particularly ideal, which was understandable.
"Anyway, we finally got the precious three points." Su Dong said with a smile.
These three points allowed Manchester City to continue their winning streak, which has reached 18 consecutive wins.
It is no longer news that Manchester City won the half-season championship. The real news is whether Manchester City can win the half-season championship with 19 consecutive wins, that is, a perfect record.
You know, in the history of the Premier League or England's top league, no team has ever won the half-time championship with a perfect record. Even in other top leagues, this is unprecedented.
When asked by media reporters, Su Dong expressed his anticipation for the team's 19th game.
Unfortunately, Manchester City has been playing away games consecutively, which is indeed very unfavorable for Manchester City.
In the 19th round, the opponent is the Black Cats Sunderland coached by Martin O'Neill, which is also a tough opponent.
Su Dong joked that he didn't even want Manchester City to win the half-time championship with a perfect record, but Manchester City was full of expectations and desire for this.
“This is a rare honor for all of us.”
But Su Dong also repeatedly reminded everyone that Sunderland is not a simple team.
Although the Black Cats Sunderland are currently ranked 15th in the Premier League, they have only achieved a draw against Liverpool against the top seven teams in the league, except for Manchester City. All other teams have been lost without exception.
But it would be a mistake to underestimate Sunderland because of this.
The team coached by Martin O'Neill also has famous stars such as Wes Brown, O'Shea and Bendtner, which makes the Black Cats Sunderland very strong. Even when facing teams such as Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal, Sunderland can play back and forth, which shows its own strength.
…
In this battle on Boxing Day, many Premier League teams lost points one after another.
Chelsea drew 1-1 with Fulham at home, Liverpool drew 1-1 with Blackburn at home, and Arsenal drew 1-1 with Wolves at home. All three games ended in a 1-1 draw, which showed the difficulty of the Boxing Day battle.
But the biggest surprise was Manchester United.
The Red Devils played Wigan Athletic at home. With Rooney on the bench, they beat their opponents 5-0 thanks to a hat-trick from Berbatov and goals from Park Ji-sung and Valencia.
This is the second consecutive round in which the Red Devils have won their opponents 5-0. The last round was against Fulham away.
What made Ferguson most happy was that the handsome Berbatov actually regained his best form in the devilish Christmas schedule, which greatly improved Manchester United's originally weak offense and won two consecutive rounds against their opponents.
More importantly, in the last game, five attackers scored goals, while in this game, Berbatov, Park Ji-sung and Valencia scored goals, which made Manchester United's offensive lineup look flourishing. This is completely different from the situation where Manchester City relied on Sudon, Arsenal relied on Van Persie, and Chelsea relied on Drogba.
The team's big win gave Ferguson confidence and also made him regain his ambition to win the league title and reverse Manchester City.
Ferguson said that Manchester United is an extremely experienced team with a fine tradition of comebacks, so he is not worried about how far behind Manchester City they are now, because no matter how many points they are behind, he will find a way to make a comeback.
The British media also gave high praise to Manchester United's strong recovery.
But just as the Red Devils were receiving overwhelming praise from the outside world, Manchester United was exposed in the 19th round of the Premier League three days later.
(End of this chapter)
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