Chapter 998: He is serious about football!
Is Mourinho crazy? This was the focus of major media reports around the world on match day.
No one expected that Mourinho would announce his starting lineup a day in advance.
Is he crazy? Or is he deliberately releasing a smokescreen? No one knows why, but major media outlets are studying the authenticity of this list.
Judging from the list, it is quite authentic, because they are basically players that Mourinho values, such as Seydou Keita and Yaya Toure. All the players who should have started started.
But there is also a problem, which is the lack of left-back.
After Abidal started his liver transplant surgery, Adriano was the left-back that Mourinho reused, but he was not included in the roster for this game. So who does Mourinho plan to arrange to play this position?
Will Puyol play as a guest player? This is indeed a possibility, because Puyol has played as a left back before.
In this case, it makes sense to let Pique and Mascherano partner as central defenders in the middle.
Barcelona's defense is strong, but also weak. The key depends on what kind of opponent they face.
Su Dong has scored many goals against Barcelona in the past. Now that they meet again, everyone is very curious whether Barcelona’s defense can freeze Su Dong?
Before the game, Mourinho suddenly announced the starting lineup in advance. What was his intention? …………
…………
Manchester City arrived in Barcelona a day in advance.
We previously borrowed a training ground from Espanyol, and yesterday we went to Camp Nou to familiarize ourselves with the field.
After being busy for a while and resting for a night, I woke up the next day to a wave of blockbuster news, like a thunderbolt, which made everyone unbelievable. Who would have thought that there would be such an operation.
Early in the morning, the technical director Begiristain, who led the team to Barcelona, was called to a meeting by Guardiola and other coaching staff. Su Dong also participated, and the content of the meeting was nothing more than Mourinho's list.
Contrary to outside speculation, Manchester City has real stuff.
In fact, the team had already been deducing Mourinho's starting lineup, and had come up with more than one.
But I have to say that this starting lineup was really unexpected.
The meeting lasted for a full hour before it ended.
After the meeting, Su Dong went directly to the hotel's conference room to attend the team's routine pre-match preparation meeting.
Before the coaching staff arrived, the players were already discussing the list in the conference room. They had also received news from newspapers, websites, and familiar media, as well as various analytical reports.
When they saw Su Dong coming in, everyone immediately surrounded him.
…
"Boss, what is Mourinho planning to do?"
"Su, how authentic is the list? Could it be that Mourinho is trying to trick us?"
"It doesn't seem real at all without a left-back."
"I guess this is a smokescreen from Mourinho. The old man hasn't learned anything else, but he has learned all of Ferguson's tricks."
"Is it possible that he will really play with this lineup?"
"Didn't I say that just now? Our winger is not an inverted winger. If we let Puyol play as a left back, can he stop Sanchez?"
"Mourinho would never have left us with such a glaring hole."
"I agree, he must have a conspiracy."
"I have known Mourinho for so many years, and this old guy has never had any good intentions."
The last person to speak was Pepe, who was obviously also very unhappy with Mourinho.
Everyone expressed their opinions one after another, but in the end it was discovered that they were the only ones talking and Su Dong didn't even have a chance to speak.
Suddenly, everyone fell silent again, looking at Su Dong, waiting for him to speak.
"We just studied for an hour, and the final conclusion we came to is..."
Everyone immediately paid attention.
Su Dong grinned, "We don't know either."
Everyone was disappointed. Is this the answer? "In fact, apart from Mourinho and the Barcelona coaching staff, no one knows whether this list is true or false. No one has stipulated that Mourinho must use this list to arrange the starting lineup, right?"
After everyone thought about it, they realized that this was indeed the truth.
This is also where everyone disputes.
"This list is a little different from our previous deduction, but generally speaking it's very close. What does he want to do by releasing it now? To tell us his thoughts? To distract us? Or to make us guess what he's thinking? Another possibility is to make us think too much and lose our composure."
Everyone was stunned when they heard it, it seemed to be true.
This list may be good for fooling the outside media and fans, but it is really unclear how much use it will be to Manchester City.
This alone makes people question Mourinho's intentions.
Of course, Manchester City has deduced several starting lineups for Barcelona, but none of them is the same as the one announced by Mourinho, so to say it is useless is not entirely true, it is just that its usefulness is very limited.
At this point in the game, it is impossible for Manchester City to change its tactics specifically to target Barcelona.
If you really say so, it may not be worth the effort.
"You mean we don't look at this list?" Zabaleta asked with concern.
Su Dong shook his head. "Just take a look. There's no need to take it seriously."
Seeing his teammates' puzzled eyes, Su Dong smiled and said, "No matter what Mourinho's intention is in releasing this list, or even what kind of lineup Barcelona plans to line up or what tactics they adopt, for us, the process and the result are the same. We will defeat our opponents in the way we are best at."
"We have always been like this. We don't consider the opponent's ideas, tactics and attitude. We only care about ourselves, because as long as we do well enough and are outstanding enough, no team can stop us."
When everyone heard this, they all nodded. This is indeed the attitude towards the game that Manchester City has always adhered to in the past two seasons, and even since Guardiola took over as coach.
The only difference is that the results in Guardiola's first season as coach were indeed a bit bad, but since Su Dong joined, Manchester City's results have improved by leaps and bounds, and now it has become one of the top teams in Europe.
"Instead of blindly guessing the opponent's intentions, we should concentrate on doing our job and think about how to perform better and better in the game. This is what we should think about now."
Is there any use for Mourinho to announce this list in advance? Su Dong cannot say that there is no use at all.
For example, Guardiola.
The head coach of Manchester City is famously known as "Mr. George".
What does it mean? George, it means tangled.
Guardiola is so entangled that he even likes to dwell on trivial matters. He is the kind of person who likes to understand everything and think through all possibilities before the game.
The more such a person is, the more likely he is to make some sudden and incredible decisions before major games, and the more likely he is to be influenced and disturbed by such strategies of his opponents.
Why the meeting so early in the morning? Because Guardiola didn't sleep much the previous night, struggling with this issue.
To some extent, this kind of character has made Guardiola what he is today, but it also makes him prone to obsession.
During the meeting just now, Su Dong and Begiristain both tried to persuade him kindly, because they were really afraid that he would change the formation at the last minute.
Judging from Barcelona's current starting lineup, Mourinho is likely to take a defensive stance.
This is actually not difficult to guess, because of the defeat in the European Super Cup, especially during the game, Mourinho was obviously conservative. Given his personality, he is likely to take a defensive stance and then use quick counterattacks to attack Manchester City.
If he wins, he will be able to hold his head high.
Another point is that he may not be very confident in the team's defense, especially when playing against Manchester City.
With Barcelona taking a defensive stance, Manchester City should stick to its own style of play.
…
Guardiola walked into the meeting room accompanied by Begiristain, Torrent, Estiart and others.
He still looked solemn, and everyone had gotten used to his expression.
He takes football seriously!
Guardiola first discussed with everyone the starting lineup announced by Mourinho, which was similar to what Su Dong had just said. Obviously, during the one-hour meeting, he was persuaded by Su Dong and others and decided to stick to his own style of play.
In the subsequent targeted tactical arrangements, Guardiola did not make any new arrangements, but simply asked the two flanks to pay more attention and increase the offensive firepower when necessary.
As the player just said, if Puyol plays as a left back, Sanchez will have an advantage on the right side.
As the name suggests, Puyol is a right-footed player. If he plays on the left side, he mainly has the advantage of defending against the inverted wingers cutting inside. However, Sanchez is right-footed and can force a breakthrough or penetrate from the bottom line, which puts Puyol at a great disadvantage.
"Another possibility is Seydou Keita. He is a left-footed player. Mourinho often uses him to play on the left side of midfield and has also played as a left back. If he is allowed to play as a left back, the possibility is quite high." Guardiola made his guess.
This speculation is also very likely.
But in this way, Mourinho's midfield arrangement will be more conservative.
Mascherano will be pushed into the midfield as a defensive midfielder, freeing up Yaya Toure and Xavi.
Iniesta, Fabregas and Messi formed the front trident.
There is indeed such a possibility, and it is not small.
Guardiola stressed that no matter how the opponent will adjust and arrange during the game, Manchester City's tactics will remain basically unchanged and will still follow the original plan. The offensive routines are basically what Manchester City is most familiar with.
This is mainly because the team's schedule is too tight. With two games in a row in a week, Manchester City has no time to conduct targeted tactical drills and can only adopt the offensive routines that everyone is familiar with on a daily basis.
Sometimes, the old routines may seem cliché and old-fashioned, but the thing is that they work and have been tried and tested.
Because some things are unique to Manchester City and opponents cannot defend against them.
For example, Su Dong.
(End of this chapter)
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