Array football

Chapter 371 Strangling the Unknown to Death

Two days later, on December 12, Manchester City played against Wolves.

This game is also the last game before the new year.

Manchester City defeated the opponent 4:1 at home and bid farewell to the entire 2009 game with a victory.

Of course, the bad news is that given Shevchenko's recent poor state, Duncan put him on the bench.

In fact, putting a player who has just won the Golden Globe on the bench is something that every head coach is unwilling to do.

But on the football field, after all, it is a place where performance on the field speaks.

Shevchenko has performed too poorly recently and really needs to calm down on the bench.

Before this game, Duncan also talked specifically with Shevchenko. Although he was a little unhappy, as a famous player, he also knew that his recent performance was unconvincing, so he accepted the arrangement of the coaching staff.

As for adjusting the state or something, Shevchenko has rich experience and doesn't need others to tell him what to do.

Throughout the game, Shevchenko sat on the bench with an indifferent face. In the last 20 minutes of his debut, he only contributed a ridiculously wide shot.

Seeing Shevchenko's performance, Duncan also shook his head.

On January 1, the third round of the FA Cup, the Premier League team began to intervene.Manchester City's opponent is Middlesbrough from the British Championship.

The FA Cup is a hotbed for low-level teams, but for Middlesbrough, which is aiming to surpass, it is a bit tasteless.

If they succeed, the income they can get will be far more attractive than going a little further in the FA Cup.

5:0, Manchester City easily defeated their opponents away and advanced to the next round of the FA Cup.

And their opponent in the next round, coincidentally, was the team they eliminated in the League Cup, Scunthorpe.

Being able to play against Manchester City both at home and away, I believe this will be one of Scunthorpe's best memories this season.

The subsequent Premier League games were actually relatively easy.

Although in the second half of January, Manchester City will play six consecutive games in the league, FA Cup and League Cup within 15 days, most of the opponents are relatively weak.

The only thing to worry about is the two League Cup semi-finals against Manchester United on January 1 and 20.

In the middle of the week, Manchester United drew a game, and the points gap with Manchester City reached as much as 11 points. Ferguson had to consider that if he missed in the league, a bottle of the League Cup trophy could at least guarantee that Manchester United would win this season. It is no longer all four.

Unsurprisingly, at the UEFA awards on January 1, Manchester City once again won the best coach and the World Footballer of the Year awards.

It's just that Shevchenko's sluggish performance in the past month makes his award not so convincing.

In all competitions, he has lost five consecutive games.

Even when the award was presented, Shevchenko's smile was a little forced.

In order to show the importance attached to Manchester City, FIFA President Sepp Blatter took Duncan's hand and talked to him for a while.

Give Duncan enough face.

The TV lens and the shutter of the reporter turned to the two of them frequently.

But back in the league, the best coach award seems to be poisonous.

In the two supplementary league matches that were delayed due to the Club World Cup, although Manchester City defeated Sunderland, they were overthrown by Lao Lei's Tottenham and lost 1:2 to White Hart Lane.

With this victory, Tottenham ranked fifth, 1 point behind Manchester United.

The fourth, fourth and fifth will determine who will play in the Champions League and who will play in the Europa League.

So even if Manchester United wants to work hard in the League Cup, they can't relax too much in the league.

On January 1, in the 16nd round of the Premier League match against Everton, Duncan chose to rotate. Manchester City was away and was tied 22:1 by Everton.

This is also the rotation that must be made in order to preserve the physical condition of the main players during the intensive schedule.

Losing to Tottenham and being drawn by Everton also gave Manchester City's boys ample desire for victory.

In the first round of the League Cup on January 1, Manchester City was like a downhill tiger, defeating Manchester United 20:4, continuing the winning streak against Manchester United.

The Manchester United players, on the other hand, were numb when they lost the game.

Consecutive losses have almost become a habit. When facing Manchester City, their psychology has been affected.

Four days later, in the FA Cup, Manchester City defeated Scunthorpe again 5:1 away and advanced to the fifth round of the FA Cup. Their opponent was Stoke City.

In this game, Shevchenko made his debut and contributed a goal, ending his scoring drought of eight games in more than a month.

But he was not happy, because it was obviously a side dish for the substitutes to beat the weak teams.

So even if he scored a goal, Shevchenko's mood is still not very good.

He worked very hard and tried desperately to try to shoot, but his poor state was obvious.

After the midweek league victory, Manchester City ushered in the second round semi-final of the League Cup with Manchester United.

Although they lost to Manchester City 1:4 in the first round, it was a game that Ferguson could not give up no matter from the perspective of Derby or the personality of the head coach.

Ferguson's idea, even if he loses, he has to bite off a piece of Manchester City's flesh.

Across the Premier League for more than 20 years, stubbornness has almost become an attitude that has penetrated into Ferguson's bone marrow.

Even in the era when Mourinho first came to the Premier League and killed the Quartet, Ferguson never gave up chasing the Premier League championship; not to mention, he also shouted words like kicking Liverpool off the throne.

So he never gave up on beating Duncan and Manchester City.

In this game, Duncan hid David Silva, Aguero and Pedro who played all the games in the league, and started Sanchez, Sturridge and Petrov.

From the beginning of the game, it entered a fierce struggle.

Manchester United used strong off-ball running to contain Manchester City. What Ferguson wanted to suppress was Manchester City's frontcourt combination that had undergone a substantial rotation.

This season, in order to fill the vacancy left by Ronaldo, when Ferguson established Rooney as the core of the team, he also played the "whole" card, allowing players to run without the ball and cooperate as a whole. Take control of the game.

On the Manchester City side, they still maintain the tactics of strengthening the ball possession in the midfield, making full use of Hargreaves and Toure's midfield ball-holding ability, coupled with the assistance of Sanchez and Petrov from the side, paying great attention to the game. control of the situation.

Although it has come to the last stand, Ferguson's team is still stable.After all, it is a team that has experienced strong winds and waves. The first thing they have to do is to ensure that the goal is not lost.

On this basis, we must seize every opportunity to counterattack, strive to play with high efficiency, and directly give Manchester City a fatal blow.

Duncan is also well aware of Ferguson's ability to grasp the rhythm, and knows that Ferguson cannot be allowed to play the opportunity of Manchester United's characteristics, that will only make the team passively enter the rhythm of Manchester United.

If Manchester United is allowed to open the scoring first, then there will be more unknowns about the outcome of this game.

The unknown must be strangled in its infancy.

So despite the lead, Duncan's tactics are not conservative.Manchester City has been actively pressing up from the very beginning, taking advantage of the home court advantage, taking advantage of the explosive points of Sanchez and Petrov, and actively attacking Manchester United's goal.

Different starting lineups have different focuses of the team.With Sanchez and Petrov starting in this game, Manchester City's offense naturally played more on the two sides, giving full play to the impact ability of the two on the side.

In the penalty area, there are not only the high point of Samaras, but also Sturridge with a keen sense of smell, and there are also many articles that can be done.

Without probing, the two sides went straight to the trump card.

The first goal came soon.

In the 24th minute of the first half, Petrov made a one-on-one breakthrough from the left and made a cross. The football went to the center. Samaras beat Vidic to grab the header and the football was pushed to the back point.

After Sanchez plugged in from the right, he scored with a burst shot and opened the scoring for Manchester City.

Expand the total score to 5:1!
After conceding the ball, Manchester United, who had a last stand, had to press the whole team to strengthen the attack. The double forward combination of Adebayor and Rooney has played a tacit understanding after half a season. In addition, Valencia and Nani are on both sides. Lu's strong insertion, Manchester United hopes to play more cooperation in the frontcourt, so as to suppress Manchester City's wings.

But offense is very delicate. When you want to suppress the opponent, you must bear the risk.Manchester United's reckless attack is the first to expose its own vacancy.

In the 35th minute, Manchester City made use of a breakthrough from the right. Sanchez threw away Rafael and made a cross.

2: 0!
In terms of total score, Manchester City is already 6:1!
In the second half, the two sides changed sides and fought again. Ferguson replaced Berbatofe to strengthen the attack. At the beginning of the second half, Manchester United actively played a round of attack. Rooney made a successful push from the back point.

2: 1!
Manchester United pulled back a point.

But Manchester City still controlled the rhythm on the field.

Especially Sanchez, his personal dribbling is different from Silva, with a strong individualistic style, not only fast, but also physically strong, and has a very strong long-distance running ability.

Even Ferguson was fascinated by the sidelines.

If Ronaldo left the team and introduced Sanchez himself, the team might not be reduced to the embarrassing situation of competing with Arsenal for the fourth.

Sanchez wrapped up Manchester United's defense, and after Otamendi made a mistake and sacrificed himself, he seemed to be possessed by a god, and his performance suddenly became outstanding.

First, in a one-on-two situation, when facing Adebayor and Berbatov's double ghost shot, he defended Adebayor with a fake action and tricked him into passing the ball, but he used his explosive power to break the ball. Adebayor and Berbatov's passes resolved an offensive threat from Manchester United.

A few minutes later, facing Rooney's shot from close at hand, Otamendi blocked the baseline with his body and resolved a crisis in front of Manchester City.

Diego Lopez was so moved that he wanted to offer his own kiss.

Otamendi is indeed the incarnation of angels and devils, he can make mistakes and play like a god.

However, Manchester United did not give up.

At the last moment, Ferguson almost gave up and replaced Owen again, and Manchester United's four forwards appeared at the same time!
However, Manchester City's defense was different because of Otamendi, coupled with the great help of Fellaini who played in the second half, Manchester City kept the score until the end.

Manchester City defeated Manchester United with a total score of 6:2 and entered the 09/10 season, the final of the English League Cup.

(End of this chapter)