i want to be king

Chapter 972 Welcome to attack!

After returning to Manchester from Milan, Manchester City took a short rest and went south to London non-stop, staying at the manor hotel that was booked early.

After learning the experience and lessons of the last competition with Manchester United, Manchester City will now book a hotel very early every time they play an away game 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 received Manchester City many times, and they are very familiar with each other and have a lot of experience.

In the first half of the game, the team had a series of victories. After entering February, the performance did decline. First they drew with Everton, and then they drew with AC Milan. Although they were all away games and the opponents were not weak, it was a draw.

This is actually not surprising.

The coaching staff has repeatedly emphasized that this is due to the pressure accumulated by the team after long-term multi-line battles, especially from Christmas to winter break, Manchester City has more games than other teams, and the pressure is naturally greater.

But for players, a tie is a tie, and they are still somewhat affected.

Cardiff is not a strong team. They are only ranked eighth in the current British Championship. In the just-concluded second round of the British Championship No.30, they lost [-]-[-] to Ibswich Town in the away game.

From the face of the cards, this is not a close match between the two sides.

But the football game is not based on strength at all. If the winner can be determined only by the strength of the cards, then there is no need to play the game. Just calculate the wave before the game. The outcome is simple and clear, and it saves trouble.

One obvious point is that Cardiff gave up the previous league game against Ipswich Town, focusing on preparing for the League Cup final.

Unlike Manchester City, which has a tight and dense schedule and has to be distracted from multi-line battles, Cardiff is now concentrating all its forces and investing in this final, trying to make a big upset.

To put it bluntly, for a team like Cardiff, losing the final is a matter of course, and winning is a lot of money.

……

"They have as long as [-] days to prepare, and the preparation will be very, very full, but we obviously can't do it. Even so far, we don't have time to conduct targeted tactical exercises against our opponents."

After arriving at the hotel, the team held an internal meeting, and Estiat analyzed the current problems of Manchester City.

The strength is dominant, but the state is not certain. Manchester City players are generally tired, while Cardiff is recharging their energy.

In terms of preparation, Manchester City has no time to prepare at all. The game is one game after another. It is too late to rest and adjust. How can they find time to conduct targeted drills?
Of course, even so, Manchester City still has an overwhelming advantage.

But Cardiff may not be without a fight, especially if they are well prepared.

Against Cardiff, Manchester City must still take the initiative. Needless to say, Su Dong believes that the team should attack first and strive for the first goal, which is very important for stabilizing Manchester City's military spirit.

"After the opening, we tried to play a wave of climax, it is best to be able to score goals, and then fully integrate the game into our rhythm. In this way, even if Cardiff wants to resist, it will not be easy."

Everyone also nodded, and many players voiced their support for Su Dong's opinion.

In such a final, the first goal is very important. For a team like Manchester City, the first goal is particularly important.

As long as they are in the lead, the team will have more patience and slowly consume Cardiff.

On the contrary, Cardiff, if they are scored by Manchester City first, can they still defend patiently?

Guardiola and other coaching staff also agree with this view, so how to score first?

According to this point, Su Dong proposed several cooperative routines, which were polished and familiar to Manchester City on weekdays. When the time comes, they will play out on the spot according to the situation on the court, and use whichever one is more suitable.

In this League Cup, Manchester City will still rotate, Hazard will replace Di Maria in the start, Leighton Bynes will replace Marcelo, and other positions will be adjusted according to the situation.

Due to the injury of Douglas Costa on the right, Sanchez is likely to start this game.

In Milan, Zabaleta rested and was also going to start at Wembley Stadium.

At that time, Manchester City's left and right wings will be active, and the key depends on the players' on-the-spot performance and state.

The only thing that worries the Manchester City players is Su Dong.

In the game against AC Milan, Su Dong was indeed not very active. Although he created two penalties and was ignored by the referee, but in the whole game, Su Dong was not as amazing as usual, which also prevented Manchester City from scoring goals.

In the second half, Guardiola replaced Aguero, but also failed to score.

So much so that the media said that when Su Dong misfired, Manchester City couldn't even find the goal anywhere.

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 to London this time!"

Everyone laughed.

…………

…………

Malky McKay is a defender who first played for the Celtics in the Scottish Premier League and later joined the then League One Norwich.

In the summer of [-], he switched to West Ham United, and a season later, he moved to Watford and helped the team successfully advance to the Premier League. That was a gift from God to him in the latter part of his career.

Fourteen games, zero goals, this is his answer in the Premier League.

Also in that year, he entered the Scottish national team, and his appearances stopped at five games.

In [-], after retiring from Watford, Malky McKay did not leave the team. Instead, a few months after retiring, Watford coach Boss Royd dismissed get out of class. McKay coached four British championship games and later became the assistant coach of the new head coach Rodgers.

After Rodgers went to Reading to coach, McKay took over his position logically and became the head coach of Watford. After two years of coaching, that is, last summer, seeing that Watford had no hope of surpassing, he jumped to coach Cardiff, who won the third place in the British Championship that year, aiming to help the team break into the Premier League.

Since the team received capital injection from Malaysian tycoon Chen Zhiyuan in [-], he has been ambitious and wants to enter the Premier League. Chen Zhiyuan has another identity that is well known in China, the uncle of the wife of the king Andy Lau.

So far this season, Cardiff has not shown the spirit of rushing to the Premier League in the British Championship, and the league ranking is also hovering in the promotion play-off area, but in the League Cup, Cardiff has made it all the way, surprisingly reaching the final.

Whether it is the boss, the management, the players or the fans, they are very satisfied with McKay.

Even McKay himself is very excited and looking forward to it, because he knows that his career is going up, and he is very much looking forward to being able to lead Cardiff to the Premier League, which he has always dreamed of.

More importantly, he hopes to become a famous head coach in the Premier League like Rodgers who assisted him back then.

Against Manchester City, it is undoubtedly such an opportunity.

Everyone knows how strong Manchester City's performance in the Premier League is.

Although Cardiff has passed all the way and encountered many Premier League teams, Manchester City is the most golden touchstone.

McKay wants to use Manchester City and this League Cup final to let all the Premier League teams know him again.

Therefore, in this game at Wembley Stadium, McKay, who was full of desire to win, did not hide his aggressiveness at all, unwilling to defend, but used England's iconic four-four-two tactics.

Just after kick-off, Cardiff took the initiative to attack Manchester City, and quickly scored to the outside of Manchester City's big penalty area.

Even the commentator of Sky Sports, who was in charge of the broadcast, was amazed, "This is a very courageous and surprising decision!"

Though not?
A team ranked eighth in the English Championship, facing Manchester City, which has booked the Premier League title, played uncompromisingly at the beginning, took the initiative to attack, and directly attacked the outside of Manchester City's big penalty area, and it was about to enter the penalty area.

Is this surprising?

McKay was wearing a black suit, standing in front of the coach's bench, watching everything that happened on the field in silence.

At first glance, he really looks a bit handsome.

……

I have to say that Cardiff's opening attack took Manchester City by surprise.

Originally in the team's plan, Cardiff should retreat steadily.

Who would have thought that he would take the initiative to press it out.

Are Manchester City afraid?

joke!

The biggest headache for Manchester City is actually the defensive team, taking the initiative to attack?

That's very welcome!
At the time of No.80 three seconds, Cardiff's left midfielder Mason dribbled the ball at the front of the penalty area and tried to dribble into the penalty area, but Busquets took the ball away first.

After the Spanish midfielder stole the ball, they did not love to fight and passed the ball directly to Toni Kroos in front.

With his back to attack, the German midfielder played a non-stop pass straight to David Silva.

The Spanish midfielder stopped the ball forward and dribbled the ball directly over the center line.

Cardiff's defense retreated quickly and immediately approached David Silva. This made Su Dong, who was at the forefront and ready to hit behind him at any time, realize that he couldn't do it. He immediately gave up advancing and ran back actively, raising his hand for the ball.

David Silva passes the ball to Sudong.

Su Dong, who retreated, brought out central defender Turner. Facing the incoming ball, he made an emergency stop, hooked the ball with his right foot, turned around from the other side of Turner, and then chased the ball away, forming a beautiful pass.

In an instant, the fans in the entire Wembley Stadium cried out in surprise.

After Su Dong quickly caught up with the ball, he strode forward and saw the opportunity, and passed the ball to Hazard on the left, while he turned to the middle, especially the arc top area at the front of the penalty area, and opened a proper distance.

When Hazard stopped the ball, it formed a one-on-one outside the left corner of the penalty area.

Facing the right defender McNaughton, Hazard stopped the ball and then started. With a skillful fake move, after deceiving McNaughton, he suddenly cut in laterally, attracted the attention of another central defender Hudson, and made a cross pass to the top of the arc.

I saw that Su Dong, who deliberately slowed down and advanced just now, had already accelerated suddenly, and rushed directly to the top of the arc. Facing Hazard's cross pass, he shot furiously without stopping the ball, blasting a heavy artillery long shot.

(End of this chapter)