Chapter 972 Welcome to attack!
After returning to Manchester from Milan, Manchester City took a short break and then headed south to London and checked into the manor hotel that had been booked early.
After learning from the lessons of the last competition with Manchester United, Manchester City now books a hotel early every time it plays away against a London team. This time the League Cup final was held at Wembley Stadium in London, and Manchester City still stayed in this familiar hotel.
The hotel has hosted Manchester City many times, and they are very familiar with each other and have a lot of experience.
The team won consecutive games in the first half of the season, but their performance did decline after entering February. First they drew with Everton and then with AC Milan. Although both games were away games and the opponents were strong, they still drew.
This is actually not surprising.
The coaching staff repeatedly emphasized that this was due to the pressure accumulated after the team's long-term multi-line operations, especially from Christmas to the winter break, Manchester City played more games than other teams, so the pressure was naturally greater.
But for the players, a draw is a draw and they are still somewhat affected.
Cardiff is not a strong team and is currently ranked only eighth in the Championship. In the just-concluded 32nd round of the Championship, they lost 0-3 to Ibrahimovic away from home.
Judging from the cards, this is not a evenly matched game.
But the game on the football field is not based on strength at all. If the winner can be determined only by the strength on the cards, then there is no need to play the game. Just make a prediction before the game, the winner will be simple and clear, and it will save trouble.
One obvious point is that Cardiff gave up the previous league match against Ipswich and focused on preparing for the League Cup final.
Unlike Manchester City, which has a tight and intensive schedule and has to fight on multiple fronts, Cardiff is now concentrating all its forces on this final in an attempt to create a big upset.
To put it bluntly, for a team like Cardiff, losing the final is a given, and winning would be a huge win.
…
"They have 14 days to prepare, so they will be very, very well prepared, but we obviously can't do that. Even up to now, we have not had time to conduct targeted tactical drills against our opponents."
After arriving at the hotel, the team held an internal meeting where Estiart analyzed Manchester City's current difficulties.
They have the advantage in strength, but not necessarily in form. Manchester City players are generally tired, while Cardiff are recuperating.
In terms of preparation, Manchester City had no time to prepare. The games were one after another, and they were too busy to rest and adjust. How could they find time to conduct targeted drills? Of course, even so, Manchester City still had an overwhelming advantage.
But Cardiff may not be without the ability to fight, especially if they are well prepared.
It goes without saying that Manchester City will definitely take the initiative against Cardiff. However, Su Dong believes that the team should attack first and strive to score first, which is very important for stabilizing Manchester City's morale.
"After the opening, we tried to play a high wave, preferably to score a goal, and then completely bring the game into our rhythm. In this way, it would be difficult for Cardiff to resist."
Everyone nodded, and many players voiced their support for Su Dong's opinion.
In a final like this, scoring first is very crucial, and for a team like Manchester City, scoring first is particularly important.
As long as they are leading, the team will have more patience and can slowly consume the time with Cardiff.
On the other hand, if Cardiff concedes a goal to Manchester City first, will they be able to defend patiently?
Guardiola and other coaching staff also agree with this view, so how to score first?
Based on this, Su Dong proposed several cooperation routines, which Manchester City are very familiar with in their daily lives. When the time comes, they will play them out on the spot according to the situation on the field and use whichever one is more suitable.
In this League Cup match, Manchester City will still make rotations. Hazard will replace Di Maria in the starting lineup, Leighton Baines will replace Marcelo, and other positions will also be adjusted according to the situation.
Due to the injury of Douglas Costa on the right, Sanchez is likely to start in this game.
In Milan, Zabaleta will rest and will also start at Wembley Stadium.
By then, both the left and right flanks of Manchester City will become active, and the key will depend on the players' on-the-spot performance and condition.
The only thing that worries Manchester City players is Su Dong.
In the match against AC Milan, Su Dong was indeed not very active. Although he created two penalties that were ignored by the referee, looking at the entire game, Su Dong was not as amazing as usual, which also prevented Manchester City from scoring a goal.
In the second half, Guardiola replaced Aguero, but he still couldn't score.
That's why the media said that when Su Dongbo was silent, Manchester City couldn't even find the goal.
When Guardiola asked Su Dong with concern, he couldn't help laughing.
"Don't worry, just in case, I brought three pairs of shooting boots with me to London this time!"
Everyone burst out laughing.
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Malky Mackay was a defender who first played for Celtic in the Scottish Premier League before joining Norwich in League One.
In the summer of 2004, he moved to West Ham United. One season later, he moved to Watford and helped the team successfully get promoted to the Premier League. That was a gift from God to him in the later stage of his career.
Fourteen games, zero goals, this is his answer in the Premier League.
It was also in that year that he joined the Scottish national team, but his appearances stopped at five games.
In 2008, after retiring from Watford, Malky Mackay did not leave the team. Instead, a few months after his retirement, Watford head coach Boothroyd was sacked. Mackay coached four Championship games and then became the assistant coach of the new head coach Rogers.
After Rogers went to Reading to coach, Mackay naturally took over his position and became the head coach of Watford. After two years of coaching, that is, last summer, seeing that Watford had no hope of promotion to the Premier League, he jumped to coach Cardiff, who finished third in the Championship that year, aiming to help the team enter the Premier League.
Since the team welcomed the investment from Malaysian tycoon Vincent Tan in 2010, it has been ambitious and determined to enter the Premier League. Vincent Tan has another identity that is widely known in China: the uncle of superstar Andy Lau's wife.
So far this season, Cardiff has not shown the momentum to break into the Premier League in the Championship, and its league ranking is hovering around the promotion play-off zone. However, in the League Cup, Cardiff has made it all the way and unexpectedly reached the final.
Whether it is the owner, management, players or fans, they are all very satisfied with McKay.
Even Mackay himself is very excited and expectant, because he knows that his career is on the rise, and he is very much looking forward to leading Cardiff to the coveted Premier League.
More importantly, he hopes to become a famous Premier League head coach like Rogers, whom he assisted in the past.
The match against Manchester City is undoubtedly such an opportunity.
Everyone knows how strong Manchester City is in the Premier League.
Although Cardiff has overcome many obstacles and encountered many Premier League teams along the way, Manchester City is the most valuable touchstone.
McKay wants to use Manchester City and this League Cup final to make all the Premier League teams get to know him again.
So, in this game at Wembley Stadium, Mackay, who was full of desire to win, did not hide his aggressiveness at all. He was unwilling to defend, but instead deployed England's iconic 4-4-2 tactics.
As soon as the ball kicked off, Cardiff took the initiative to attack Manchester City and quickly broke into the outskirts of Manchester City's penalty area.
Even the Sky Sports commentator who was responsible for the broadcast exclaimed, "This is a very courageous and surprising decision!"
Even though it wasn’t? A team ranked eighth in the English Championship, facing Manchester City, which had booked the Premier League title, played uncompromisingly from the start, took the initiative, and directly attacked the periphery of Manchester City’s penalty area, and was about to enter the penalty area.
How could this not be surprising?
McKay, wearing a black suit, stood in front of the coaching seats, silently watching everything that happened on the field.
At first glance, he really does have the bearing of a famous general.
…
It has to be said that Cardiff's opening attack really caught Manchester City by surprise.
Originally in the team's plan, Cardiff should have retreated steadily.
Who would have thought that he would actually press it out on his own initiative.
Are Manchester City afraid?
joke!
What gives Manchester City the biggest headache is actually the teams that retreat into defense. Should they take the initiative to attack?
That's very welcome! At the 83rd second, Cardiff left winger Mason dribbled the ball in front of the penalty area and tried to dribble into the penalty area, but Busquets got the ball first and took it away.
After the Spanish midfielder intercepted the ball, he did not linger but passed it directly to Toni Kroos in front of him.
The German midfielder turned his back to the direction of attack and passed the ball directly to David Silva without stopping.
The Spanish midfielder stopped the ball and moved forward, dribbling it directly across the center line.
Cardiff's defense retreated quickly and immediately approached David Silva. This made Su Dong, who was originally at the front and ready to attack from behind, realize that it was not going to work. He immediately gave up the forward move and took the initiative to run back, raising his hand to ask for the ball.
David Silva passed the ball to Su Dong.
The retreating Su Dong brought out the central defender Turner. Facing the incoming ball, he suddenly stopped, hooked the ball with his right foot, turned around from the other side of Turner, and chased the ball, forming a beautiful separation between man and ball.
In an instant, the fans in the entire Wembley Stadium screamed in surprise.
After Su Dong quickly caught up with the ball, he strode forward, and when he saw the opportunity, he passed the ball to Hazard on the left. He then turned to the middle, especially to the top of the arc in front of the penalty area, to keep a proper distance.
When Hazard stopped the ball, he faced a one-on-one situation outside the left corner of the penalty area.
Facing right-back McNaughton, Hazard stopped the ball and started, with a skillful feint, he fooled McNaughton, suddenly cut inside laterally, attracted the attention of another central defender Hudson, and made a horizontal pass to the top of the arc.
Su Dong, who had deliberately slowed down his pace to move forward, had already accelerated suddenly and rushed directly to the top of the arc. Facing Hazard's cross pass, he shot directly without stopping the ball and fired a powerful long shot.
(End of this chapter)
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