Chapter 376 Guardiola: The strongest man is already in the opponent's team
Chen Xiaoliang: "Coach, we must attack a little bit and force them to retreat a little. If we continue to defend like this, we will still lose the ball."
Ten Hag: "We can't change tactics midway, otherwise all the preparations before the game will be wasted."
Chen Xiaoliang: "But the current situation is that we overestimated our defensive resilience and underestimated the opponent's passing and controlling ability!"
"I'm not saying counterattacks are wrong, of course we have to counterattack, but we can't have all 11 people hiding in the penalty area and just hoping to counterattack. We must try to control the ball when we can't counterattack, either on the wing or in the midfield. We must try to control the ball when we can't counterattack, not to fight them head-on, but to make them retreat a little. In this way, even if the ball is transferred, their formation will have to press forward collectively from the backcourt. Then we can exert pressure in high-pressure pressing, instead of standing in our half and passing the ball without pressure like we are now."
Ten Hag was obviously unhappy. The team's previous No. 7 had also questioned his tactics and use of players: "The game is about to continue, you return to the court now, I am the head coach, I will be responsible for the tactics!"
Chen Xiaoliang: "I have no intention of challenging you, but coach, I have to tell you how the team really feels on the court!"
After saying that, Chen Xiaoliang turned around and ran into the field.
"Beep!" The referee John Brooks blew the whistle for the third time in the game. Cesco pushed the ball back to Chen Xiaoliang. After receiving the ball, Chen Xiaoliang called on his teammates to move forward as a whole. Then, he used his speed to get rid of the double-team of De Bruyne and Bellingham, and then passed the ball to Kva on the left.
When Kwa faced Kyle Walker, an embarrassing scene occurred, just like when Real Madrid played against Manchester City last season. It was not Kyle Walker who Vinicius could not get past, but after shaking off Kyle Walker, the English full-back with super speed turned around and chased after the breakthrough player with the ball.
Unless they are in the penalty area, where they can make a fatal pass or attack the goal directly after breaking through, otherwise someone like Kwa, who just crossed the center line and shook off Kyle Walker and didn't run a few meters, was caught up by him again.
Moreover, Kyle Walker is well versed in wing defense techniques and is very skilled in the "hand-on" role.
When a winger who does not have absolute speed wants to overtake by force, he will turn around and press his left hand on the opponent's right hand, using his arm to press down to slow down the opponent's start.
Seeing that he couldn't break through, Kva could only dunk the ball and pass it back.
Luke Shaw received the ball and Manchester United entered a long-lost positional attack.
Manchester City did not want Manchester United to be able to comfortably control the ball in their own half, so they immediately launched a double-team counterattack in the midfield.
Since Ten Hag's tactical requirement for this game was to quickly play forward, Luke Shaw passed the ball to Lima, who passed the ball back to De Gea under the pressure of B Silva. De Gea saw Haaland rushing over and Grealish was hanging around Varane on the other side, so he hastily chose to kick the ball forward.
The kick was totally inaccurate and flew directly over the center line and out of the right sideline .
All the Manchester City fans in the stadium laughed "Yeah!". The director's camera first turned to De Gea, who shook his head helplessly, and then turned to Ten Hag, who frowned and stared at the field.
At this time, Chen Xiaoliang gestured to De Gea, meaning "If you can't find a passing point, pass it to me." De Gea raised his right hand and gave a thumbs up to indicate "I understand."
It is difficult to get the ball back from Manchester City after finally losing it.
Although Chen Xiaoliang consciously marked De Bruyne more and intercepted the ball passed to De Bruyne by other players twice in the remaining time of the first half, raising the progress of the superstar mission to [2/5], Manchester United only has one Chen Xiaoliang, but Manchester City has more than one De Bruyne. B Silva, Rodri, and even Bellingham all have the ability to pass the ball with one foot.
In the past, when Chen Xiaoliang focused on defending the opponent's midfield core, Casemiro would be behind him to provide backup defense and interception. But at this moment, facing Manchester City's technically sophisticated midfield group, the waist formed by B Fee and Eriksen really couldn't stand up.
After B Silva, Grealish and Bellingham completed three shots respectively, the first half of the game ended.
Zhan Jun: "At the end of the first half, thanks to goals from Xiaoliang and Haaland, the two sides temporarily tied 1-1, but in other statistics, including ball possession, number of passes and number of shots, Manchester City was leading by a large margin in all aspects. Zhang Zhi, what do you think of the performance of both teams in the first half?"
Zhang Lu: "Manchester City's control is still too strong, especially in the midfield. There are basically seven midfielders in the offense, including Stones, B Silva and Grealish, who are interspersed back and forth. To be honest, it is commendable that Manchester United only lost one goal."
"I feel that Manchester United is still playing too conservatively. In fact, they could attack a little more and adjust Manchester City's formation. If they let Manchester City comfortably control the ball in the half, they will most likely lose the ball in the second half."
There was also a lot of mockery in the barrage:
[Mantai defeated 9 weak teams and thought he was invincible, but today he encountered a melon and immediately showed his true colors]
[If it weren't for Xiao Liang, I would have lost even the last bit of my fig leaf]
[It's a pity for Xiaoliang. Why doesn't he go to Manchester City and be with Guardiola? He will definitely have too many statistics and trophies to count]
[Today's game, I would believe that Mourinho has returned to coach Manchester United]
…
Of course, there are also many speeches supporting Chen Xiaoliang:
[Why go to Manchester City? To compete with Haaland for data? Or to pass the ball to Haaland and give away the Ballon d'Or as well? ]
[That is, if they can beat Manchester City in Rome, why can't Manchester City beat Manchester United, which has no worries about money? ]
[The league still depends on the long term. Even if we lose today, it doesn’t matter. We have a new boss and a new management team. If we can adjust and adjust for a season like Roma did, we will definitely beat our cousin next season.]
…
Chen Xiaoliang returned to the locker room without saying a word. Players cannot override the club and cannot openly challenge the authority of the head coach. He understood this principle when he first arrived at Rangers, and he also understood it when he first arrived at Rome. He understands it even more now, but the opponent is the powerful Manchester City. Defeating Manchester City is one of the reasons why he came to the Premier League, and the team's passive performance makes him eager to change the situation on the field.
There is no other way. A new head coach must get used to and understand each other. If it were Gerrard or Mourinho on the sidelines today, he only needs to make a gesture or shout, and his teammates will actively cooperate with him and adjust the game style according to the tactics prepared by the team.
Ten Hag didn't say much for a while. The ball possession rate of 71% to 29% was visible to the naked eye, not to mention that he only had two shots. Although one almost went in and one went in, they were all based on Chen Xiaoliang's superb personal ability and seemed to have nothing to do with his tactics.
However, the derby record between these two teams is very sensitive. Just like when Mourinho first arrived at Real Madrid, he tried to play an offensive game in the first national derby, but was beaten 5-0 by Guardiola's Barcelona. Since then, Mourinho has pragmatically used defensive counterattacks and dismembered the midfield connection to deal with Barcelona, and never thought about offensive games again.
Today was the same, the situation was a little worse and we lost one or two goals. There would still be opportunities to adjust later, but if we attack hastily and a tragedy occurs, it will affect our coaching position.
At this stalemate, B Fee spoke up:
"I think we could have been more proactive. Chen created two chances for us in the first half and scored a goal. We didn't fall behind in such a difficult situation. We should have been bolder."
No one was surprised to hear these words coming from Bruno Fernandes' mouth. He is like that in the locker room. He will say whatever he wants to say when he gets excited, but everyone knows that he has no bad intentions and is not angry with anyone.
Casemiro, who was on crutches, immediately agreed: "Bruno is right. We wanted to counterattack too much, so after a few times, the opponent knew how to guard against us. It will be difficult to use the same tactics again."
Varane: "We beat them 2-1 at home last season. In that game we only had 30% of the ball, but we had more shots and shots on target than them. I really think we can give it a try."
The two former Real Madrid players looked at De Gea and Rashford, and they immediately said: "Yes, our mentality in the first half was too conservative."
If B Fee spoke out of instinctive excitement, then Casemiro and Varane were just pretending to be ignorant, using their status as "big guys" to say things that ordinary players and newcomers dare not say.
Eriksen nodded, and so did Kva. Everyone looked at Chen Xiaoliang and glanced at Ten Hag from time to time.
Chen Xiaoliang: "I don't want to talk about my past in Roma, because I am the captain of this team now, but I just want to say that if the overall strength gap is too big, it is understandable to choose a conservative style of play. After all, no one believed that Roma could enter the Champions League final before the season. But today is different. Whether it is counterattack or pressing, we can ignore ball possession, but we must have offense and shots. We want to let the fans see our aggressiveness and desire to win."
"No one likes to play against the wind. We just need to make them feel uncomfortable and make them feel that the development of things is beyond their expectations, then we will have a chance!"
The three captains and four senior players of the team expressed their opinions at the same time. Ten Hag clearly saw the attitude and determination of the players, and he had no choice.
After the usual motivation, he adjusted his tactics and tactical mentality for the second half, adding multi-player coordination within a single area while counterattacking.
Although he and Chen Xiaoliang had differences, they were highly consistent on one point, that is, everyone had to increase their running to press Manchester City, making it difficult for them to advance from the backcourt smoothly.
The second half of the game started quickly and Manchester United kicked off.
Facing Manchester City's double-teaming, Manchester United players tried to control the ball and then look for opportunities to penetrate deep and hit the ball forward.
In terms of ball possession, they are still not as good as Manchester City, but they have Chen Xiaoliang.
In terms of dribbling and technique, Chen Xiaoliang is not better than B Silva, De Bruyne and others, but he has a huge advantage, that is, his incomparable physical fitness.
He can easily get the ball by relying on any Manchester City midfielder, and can also easily get rid of his opponent in a one-on-one situation.
The more he receives the ball and the more he performs, the more he will attract double-teaming and focused defense from Manchester City.
Just like in other games with him in the past, once he is double-teamed, it means that his teammates will have more opportunities.
The reason why Guardiola is Guardiola is that he insists on playing only his own tactics, focusing on himself. His team only has passing, control and attacking.
Faced with the changes in Manchester United, he can be said to have expected it and not expected it.
In the 49th minute, De Bruyne received a pass from Stones on the right side of the midfield, but Chen Xiaoliang got there first.
De Bruyne ran along the ball, but did not immediately stretch his foot to control the ball. Instead, he made a fake move to the left, trying to disrupt Chen Xiaoliang's prediction, and then received the ball and got rid of it to the right.
But he didn't expect that the feint was only useful for slow people, and for Chen Xiaoliang, there were not so many complicated steps. He rushed from the side and made a sliding tackle, shoveled the ball he was protecting between De Bruyne's feet to the left!
[Superstar Mission: Intercept the ball passed to De Bruyne 5 times]
[Task progress: 3/5]
Luke Shaw received the ball and passed it to Kwa, and Manchester United immediately pressed forward as a whole.
Due to the change of sides in the second half, the confrontation took place in front of the Manchester City bench. Seeing his favorite player De Bruyne being tackled at close range, Guardiola could not help but shout: "Catch the ball and pass it! Pass it! If you pass it, he won't be able to tackle it!"
Who would have thought that as soon as these words came out, De Bruyne, who was about to run back after losing the ball, and Chen Xiaoliang, who was about to get up from the ground and rush forward, turned their heads at the same time and shouted back at Guardiola: "Shut up!"
After this roar, the three of them were stunned for a moment, then Chen Xiaoliang stepped on the accelerator and immediately left De Bruyne behind and rushed forward.
After receiving the ball, Kva advanced for a while, but still couldn't get rid of Kyle Walker. Seeing Chen Xiaoliang coming up, he immediately passed the ball to him.
Bellingham and Rodri came over to double-team immediately. Chen Xiaoliang was on the left flank and made a direct cross with his left foot towards the back of the penalty area. The ball fell rapidly after reaching the farthest point. Rashford quickly inserted from the right side of the small penalty area and shot the ball with the arch of his right foot!
Zhan Jun: "Rashford!"
"This ball...went wide of the post! We missed a great chance to score again..."
Zhang Lu: "But we can see that Manchester United dared to press forward and hold the ball in the second half. With their current configuration in the midfield and frontcourt, they can create threats."
"At least from the fans' perspective, this game will be fun to watch."
Ten Hag asked Fred and others to start warming up on the sidelines, while on the Manchester City side, the substitute players on the bench were still sitting there without moving.
For Guardiola, who likes to pursue perfection, the 11 starting players on the field are the 11 most perfect players in his eyes. He does not like to replace anyone unless it is absolutely necessary or when the team is leading by a large margin and victory is certain.
That would shatter his sense of perfection.
But there is no such thing as a perfect player in this world.
At least it didn't exist in the past.
Ederson took the goal kick, but he looked up and began to hesitate whether to kick the ball.
Kva, Rashford, Cesco and Chen Xiaoliang, all four of them were inside and outside Manchester City's penalty area, blocking Manchester City's defenders and midfielders.
No, if he kicked the ball hard he would get scolded by Guardiola, so Ederson immediately gave up the idea.
Diaz suddenly started, got rid of Rashford from the left side of the penalty area and ran towards Ederson, who passed the ball.
Blocking the middle, Cesco immediately ran to the right, trying to double-team Diaz with Rashford.
Rodri retreated and Diaz passed the ball, but the ball was not kicked to Rodri. Instead, he used Rodri as a wingman and passed the ball to Bellingham who was a little further forward.
The next scene made Guardiola see what might be the most imperfect and most hurtful scene in his pursuit of perfection.
This scene has been encountered by Manchester United's diehard fans. As early as 2018, Solskjaer, who was still coaching Molde, recommended Haaland to Manchester United. At that time, he only wanted 4 million euros, but Manchester United rejected it from top to bottom.
Now, Manchester City has completely closed the door to Chen Xiaoliang's joining with a final that forced him to exhaustion, allowing Guardiola to discover that the most perfect player has appeared in the lineup of their mortal enemy.
As an excellent defensive midfielder who has played for Barcelona, Roma and other teams in his career, Guardiola is a typical player who uses his brain to play football. There are two meanings in this. On the one hand, it means that he can use his brain and think on the court. On the other hand, it implicitly expresses that he is not in good physical condition.
From ancient times to the present, there have been players like Riquelme and Pirlo who have delicate techniques but lack physical strength, and there have also been players like Drogba and Vieri who have explosive physiques but only specialize in one type.
Even hexagonal warriors like Rijkaard, Matthäus, and Beckenbauer have relative shortcomings in their ability classification.
But the red countryman in front of him seemed to have nothing he couldn't do except corner kicks and sideline kicks.
He can dribble to the side, cross the ball when going down the flank, shoot from the middle, grab the ball when running in, have jumping ability in air defense, and make tackles when retreating. Even in a one-on-one physical confrontation, few people can beat him.
Guardiola began to get annoyed, and the scene that appeared in front of him was that Chen Xiaoliang turned around and actually caught up with the ball that Diaz passed to Bellingham after passing by Rodri!
Dias didn't expect that he passed the ball too lightly despite using too much force, Bellingham didn't expect that Chen Xiaoliang could intercept the ball even though Rodri was a false target, and the Manchester City players in the frontcourt who were preparing to run for the ball after Bellingham received the ball didn't expect that Manchester United's high-pressure pressing would be successful!
Bellingham hurried back to press, but Chen Xiaoliang, who had stepped on the ball, arched his back and blocked his hands, and Bellingham was firmly blocked behind him.
Manchester City fans felt so upset when they saw that the next generation of British star that their team spent 120 million euros to buy was blocked behind them so miserably that they couldn't do anything about it. They wanted to rush onto the field to help Bellingham.
But the problem is that only Bellingham himself can feel the huge gap in power at this moment.
With the force of the opponent behind him pushing him forward, Chen Xiaoliang stepped on the ball, turned around, adjusted his center of gravity, and rushed forward like a fighter jet launched from an aircraft carrier.
Rodri came sideways to intercept, but Chen Xiaoliang pushed him away to the right. Akanji on the wing was too far forward and it was too late for him to catch up. There was only Diaz in front of Chen Xiaoliang, but Rashford and Cesco were wandering around him!
Stones saw that the situation was not good and ran over in advance. Rashford ran to the right side of the penalty area to make room in front, and Cesco ran to the penalty spot to prepare to receive the ball.
Chen Xiaoliang appeared on the right side of the top of the penalty area, Ederson moved to the left post, and Diaz had no choice but to pounce!
Zhan Jun: "Xiao Liang kicks the ball!"
"Stick to the Earth!"
“It’s the back point!!!”
“This ball goes in!!!”
"No. 7 passed the ball to No. 77. In the 52nd minute of the second half, Kvaratskhelia scored a goal and the score was 1-2!"
"Manchester United's crazy three-pronged pressing caused Manchester City's defense to make a huge mistake. Diaz's pass was intercepted, allowing Xiaoliang to launch this attack!"
Zhang Lu: "To be honest, this can't be considered a mistake by Diaz. His short pass was powerful enough, and Rodri's fake pass distracted the defense. The only thing to blame is that Xiaoliang started too fast."
Zhan Jun: "Ederson didn't react. He probably thought Xiaoliang kicked the ball off target. He estimated that the ball was going to roll out of the far post. Unexpectedly, Kvart inserted the ball and pushed it into the net easily without any defense!"
"Eh? The referee John Brooks is listening to his headphones, apparently trying to confirm if there is any offside."
Kva, who was celebrating after scoring the goal, immediately stopped celebrating and looked at the referee anxiously.
Chen Xiaoliang grabbed him:
"Why are you panicking? Keep celebrating. If this ball is offside, I'll eat it!"
