Mister Legend

Chapter 530 An Ugly Victory

After Real Madrid's transfer style developed towards localization and youth, Manchester City and Paris have become the only local tyrants in European football today who can spend a lot of money for a top star, even if other giants even one or two Streaming teams occasionally release big stars, but the level of the round target and the amount of transfer fees are far less than those of the two teams.

The Middle Eastern royal family or the oil tycoons behind it are also really strong. They don't even blink their eyes when they spend [-] to [-] million yuan, which can be called inhumane.

Fortunately, UEFA now has very strict inspection standards and punishments for the financial balance policy, forcing these rich clubs to maintain a balance of payments while making major signings, otherwise their lineup will be luxurious after years of accumulation. To what extent I really can't imagine.

But even so, Manchester City's lineup this season is enough to make people look sideways. Guardiola's team has reached the point where it doesn't need to operate any more, because among the fifty best players in the world, there are no less than One-seventh are in their formation, and there will not be too many objections to saying that this is the most expensive and strongest team in the history of the Premier League.

As for others that can be compared with it, in the scope of British football, only Blue Moon himself in the past few years, even Manchester United during the Triple Crown period and Arsenal, who were undefeated in the season, are hard to come by.

De Bruyne and Sane are the top five in their respective positions. Coupled with the rapid growth of Stones, Ederson, Jesus, Laporte and others in the past two years, this team can definitely Call it star-studded.The most frightening thing for competitors is that with the rising of a group of new-generation players born around 2000, such as De Ligt, Brahimi Diaz, and Phil Foden, the future of Manchester City It will still be infinitely bright, even if it is to create a dynasty that lasts for ten years, it is still rich in capital.

So even if this team has not shown the terror dominance of seven consecutive championships like Juventus before, it has become the public enemy of other teams aspiring to compete in the Premier League. A stronger fighting spirit broke out to make up for the slight gap in strength.

Even so today's Arsenal, the original negative emotions of being undefeated by Chelsea, were swept away in time under the deliberate adjustment of the head coach and the stimulation of the next biggest opponent.

On Tuesday night, in the Emirates Stadium, where fans all over the world are most concerned about, with Michael Oliver, an iconic figure in the referee circle in England today, blowing his whistle, this much-anticipated top battle kicked off.

Manchester City didn't seem to be restrained in away games at all. They pushed the 4-3-3 formation forward and attacked the Gunners' penalty area.

The trident Sterling, Jesus, and Sane in the frontcourt, with the support of De Bruyne and Gundogan behind them, as well as Walker and Mendy on both sides, basically treat the home team's hinterland. They trampled on their own back garden wantonly.The team's offensive combination is almost a combination of speed and technology to a perfect level, except that there is still a lot of deficiencies in the header. A group of geniuses will cooperate when they are happy. Problem aside, it's really hard for opponents to defend.

However, the bus tactics relying on the advantage of numbers can often cause some trouble for Manchester City, which does not have a strong center forward.

Under normal circumstances, the teams in the middle and lower reaches of the standings do not have any psychological pressure on this, and it is natural to admit counsel when the gap in strength is obviously too large.But for those strong teams, this is a psychological hurdle that is not easy to pass. Except for Mourinho, whose tactical style has always been defensive, others like Pochettino, Sarri and Klopp will suffer due to various reasons. For various reasons, when facing Guardiola, they choose to attack more, and the worst is to resolutely invest a lot of troops in the counterattack.The result is naturally more losses than wins, but at least courage is commendable.

Only Arsenal in the past two years is an exception. In the two seasons of 2018-20, Emery met Manchester City five times in the league and the FA Cup. Regardless of the home and away games, he used defense as the mainstay. In the end, he basically gave up the idea of ​​taking the initiative to attack.But the final result was nothing more than a pitiful 1 draw and 4 losses. The media and fans scolded him bloody.

Therefore, in the various analyzes before the game, it is generally believed that Li Moody will learn from his predecessor's experience and lessons, and strive to strengthen the threat on the offensive end, so as to contain Manchester City's investment in the frontcourt and avoid their defensive line that is not too good anyway. to excessive pressure.

However, what they never expected was that not only did the Gunners coach fail to strengthen the offense as everyone expected, but instead built an iron barrel formation with his side outside the penalty area after the start of the game. The three central midfielders and the wing backs on both sides were all The retreat was so deep that it literally surrounded the rectangular area of ​​40.3 meters by 16.5 meters in front of the door.

Coupled with the three central defenders waiting in the penalty area, the visiting team's short-pass penetration attempt is completely impossible to achieve the desired effect, and the space is too compressed, making it impossible for them to take advantage of their speed, so the audience In the first 10 minutes of the game, De Bruyne and others saw quite a few long-range attempts from the outside, but none of them posed any threat to the goal guarded by Leno.Either he was disturbed and missed the kick, or he was blocked by the home team's players desperately.

In terms of ball possession rate, Manchester City has a crushing advantage with a ratio of more than [-]%. It is almost a half-court practice match.The supporters of the home team at the scene were constantly booing to express their dissatisfaction. Even the commentators on the broadcast side repeatedly pointed out that this strategy of placing the bus is really not a wise choice, and I am afraid that it will not be able to persist for a long time. .

Li Mudi is naturally very aware of this situation. Blindly passive defense consumes too much physical energy for the players, and the mental pressure encountered is unimaginable for ordinary people. The combination of the two makes a team It's hard to go a full nine and 10 minutes without making a turnover on the defensive end.In the face of a strong enemy like Manchester City, even a moment of negligence may be fatal, so it is obviously unrealistic to carry out the bus tactics to the end.

What's more, even if they can draw their opponents with this kind of strategy, the gun fans who have always pursued gorgeous football will not be very satisfied. It is also unacceptable.

However, in order to avoid the opponent's possible outburst of sharpness after the opening, he had to instruct the players in advance to prepare for a full retreat and survive a wave of difficult times, because the strength comparison between the two sides is there, choose to go It's hard to say what the result of a head-to-head encounter will be, but theoretically speaking, I'm afraid Arsenal are more likely to be beaten up.

Fortunately, the opponent's physical condition is also a bit bad, and it is impossible to release 12% of the energy at one time. From No. [-] minutes, Manchester City's offensive finally weakened, allowing the Gunners to start breathing while gaining respite. You can test the stability of the opponent's defense when you are in control of the ball.

Only in the case of a complete formation, the defensive line composed of Kyle Walker, Laporte, Stones, Mendy and goalkeeper Ederson became the best in the Premier League and even the entire five major leagues last season. Good, this season Guashuai has introduced the French iron waist Bakayoko to replace the aging Fernandinho, which has enhanced the team's mobility in the backcourt.Only [-] goals conceded in the first [-] rounds of the league this season. It cannot be said to be the best in history, but it is also a very rare level.

After five or six minutes of trying, a discerning person can almost immediately conclude that in a positional battle, it is difficult to cause trouble for Manchester City's goal with Arsenal's current attack power and good offensive methods.Due to the need to prevent the opponent's equally powerful counterattack ability, the two wingbacks did not dare to go forward to assist too much, which led to the home team's offensive direction mostly concentrated in the middle area.

And even though the defensive abilities of De Bruyne and Gundogan are really not that good, with the assistance of these two people, Bakayoko can still effectively block most of the opportunities to pass the ball to the home team. The route of a forward, so that even in a one-on-one confrontation, the own central defender will not suffer too much from the opponent's impact.

Seeing that his own attack was unable to achieve any effect, and Jesus and Sane frequently put on a posture in the midfield that they would immediately advance at high speed, Li Moody immediately issued a new order to let the two forwards take turns Pulling to the side to open up space for the opponent's defense, and at the same time, immediately after losing the ball, it is necessary to carry out a resolute counterattack, which cannot allow Manchester City to counterattack comfortably.

It is a pity that although this change has increased the width of the field used by the team when passing the ball, it is even more difficult to easily send the ball into the dangerous area of ​​Manchester City due to the reduction of the front receiving point. The disadvantage of recovering some of it.

As a result, less than 10 minutes later, the visiting team had another wave of counter pressure, and the Arsenal players returned to the strategy of placing the bus again.

From then until the end of the first half, within 10 to [-] minutes, the camera of the broadcaster basically did not show the visiting team several times in the half, which somewhat puzzled everyone.Because even if the deputy squad leader of the Premier League played against Manchester City at his home court, he would not say that he had been in a passive situation all the time, how could he make a few decent counterattacks.But today's gunners are very weird. They have never used the extremely sharp team counterattack tactics in the past, or even if they have tried, it is either a mistake in passing and running, or someone's advance is not resolute. , all in all a mess.

And this also gave everyone an illusion, that is, Arsenal's offensive state is not good today, and I am afraid they can only continue to shift their focus to the defensive end in order to seek a draw.

Cautiously, a famous coach like Guardiola failed to find any traps in it by observing the situation of the half-time game and the data analysis of the opponent's only two unreliable shots.Even though he had the willpower to set back the time to launch the general attack by another 10 minutes, he still fell into Li Moody's calculations.

After waiting for an entire hour under the great pressure of the opponent, the Gunners finally waited for the moment when they could show their swords. When Manchester City's right back Walker pressed forward to the position of the winger to open up the team's attacking space , when the left-back Mendy also crossed the midfield line to assist his teammates, the home team's defense, which was still relying on player positions to prevent the opponent from forming a pass coordination, suddenly launched a wave of resolute and powerful crazy siege, directly hitting Disrupted the rhythm of Manchester City.

In the end, Gundogan's cross was intercepted by Torreira. After getting the ball, Mkhitaryan immediately dribbled forward, followed by Ndidi and the Uruguayan midfielder who just got up. In front of them, the two forwards, Aubameyang and Golovin, had first pulled from the center to the sides, and then immediately went to the opponent's goal like a wild horse that had run loose.Manchester City's two central defenders had to retreat in two ways. As for the ball carrier, they can only hope that Bakayoko and other teammates can solve it in time.

But the French midfielder disappointed his coach and his teammates. In order to create enough time for the rest to return to defense, he did not intercept Mkhitaryan at the first time, and kept retreating in the opponent's way. .Although doing so waited for Gundogan and others to chase back, it also allowed Endidi and Torreira to rush to the dangerous area outside the penalty area.

Through a concise cross and through ball, the ball finally appeared on the right side of Manchester City's penalty area, and then Golovin's knockback helped Torreira get an unblocked goal at the penalty spot.The ball flew into the upper left corner of the goal at an extremely fast speed, allowing the Gunners, who shot within the range of the goal frame for the first time so far, to take a one-goal lead.

As soon as the goal was scored, Li Mudi knew that the victory was basically secured. Faced with the situation of falling behind, Guashuai will definitely order to invest more energy in the offensive end, which will give Arsenal's offensive combination that has liberated their hands and feet. Leave more and better counterattack opportunities.And in this duel that ultimately has to compete for who can score the next goal earlier, no matter how you look at it, it should be more advantageous for your side.

And the reality really developed as he predicted, although Manchester City had been attacking Arsenal's goal before the final whistle sounded, and the veteran Aguero who came off the bench was in No.805 In the minute, he scored a goal with a penalty kick.

But before that, Aubameyang had used a counterattack to help the Gunners score the second goal of the day, coupled with the hard defense of all the players of the home team in the final stage, the score of 2 to 1 was still fixed on the scoreboard above.

In this strong matchup, Arsenal, who played at home, ended with an ugly victory, which caused a lot of controversy from the outside world.However, Li Mudi completely ignored it. He only knew that his team had won this crucial battle and widened the point difference to the number one opponent to 7 points. This was enough for everyone to celebrate. .

As for Tottenham, which has returned to the club's second place after winning this round, it really has not entered the eyes of the Gunners coach, because this rival in the same city is about to usher in an extremely difficult schedule, and it is difficult to have any outstanding performance.

(End of this chapter)