Green Journey

Chapter 384 Another goal!
Not long after, at the urging of the referee Marina, the game restarted.

Soon the effect of Chu Zheng's solo breakthrough and one-stop goal with strong personal heroism appeared on the Manchester City players.

Manchester City's morale has been greatly boosted.

Before Manchester City scored a goal, although the Manchester City players played well, they gave people a feeling of being physically and mentally exhausted on the court.

Every time they faced Tottenham's mad rush, many Manchester City players showed an evasive attitude and were afraid of physical contact.

Every time I got the ball, I saw Tottenham players coming up and throwing the ball quickly, which made Manchester City's passing seem a bit blind and disorderly. It made people feel that every player was afraid of losing the ball from his feet, allowing the opponent to successfully counterattack. Everyone is throwing the pot away.

But after the game restarts, once the ball is lost, you will see the attitude of the Manchester City players become tougher.

Even if they are at a disadvantage in a head-on confrontation with Tottenham players, they will not give up easily.

Instead, he used his flexible advantage to stalk Tottenham players, and that toughness was undoubtedly revealed.

There are also very obvious changes in passing. Players have become more active in running, more daring to make risky passes, and become more purposeful.

In the 39th minute of the game, in the face of Ali's pressure in front of the goal, Bravo took another risky spike, narrowly avoiding Ali's upper grab, and then quickly sent the ball from the left side of the penalty area.

Suddenly Tottenham's pressing focus quickly shifted.

Facing Danny Rose who was coming up along the sidewalk, Zabaleta no longer made a quick high ball and long pass as before, but found the right time to make a sudden move along the sideline, and then dodged and dived to grab the ball. Chu Zheng was quickly unloaded before Lamela approached.

After Chu Zheng took the ball, he was more simple and rude. Before the transfer of Tottenham's defensive focus was completed, his right foot was precisely guided, and he accurately found Sterling on the left side of the frontcourt.

Sterling took the ball and rushed along the sidewalk, and directly and decisively swept the ball in front of the goal after hitting the bottom.

Aguero grabs the point in the middle.

But under the interference of Vertonghen and Alderweireld's pincers, his shot was blocked by goalkeeper Lloris.

This attack made the Manchester City fans in the stands rejoice.

The changes in this scene were also seen by Guardiola and Pochettino on the sidelines.

Pochettino's eyes were filled with amazement as he watched Chu Zheng, who was becoming more and more active on the court, and his running range was getting wider and wider.

what a good player.

Chu Zheng's performance today is the standard answer.

But soon Pochettino got rid of his inner admiration for Chu Zheng.

For him, the top priority is to score another goal.

Otherwise, even if they can maintain this high-pressure situation against Manchester City, even if his players can run for 90 minutes, it will be useless.

Tottenham players are also human beings, and it is certainly impossible to run as wildly as they did in the first half physically in the second half.

As the physical fitness of the players declines, the intensity and effect of this high-pressure pressing will also weaken.

At that time, once Manchester City takes the opportunity to play Guardiola-style oppressive and pass-controlled football, they may be the unlucky ones.

This is something Pochettino absolutely does not want to see.

Next to him, Guardiola was also watching Chu Zheng silently, the love in his eyes almost overflowing.

This is what he likes most about Chu Zheng.

Don't eat the configuration, have the temperament of the spiritual leader of the team!
No matter whether the performance of other teammates is sluggish, it is difficult to affect his competitive state.

Not only can't affect it, but he can also inspire and drive other players through his excellent performance.

Chu Zheng, a potential super talent, was discovered by Guardiola when he was at Bayern Munich.

This is why Chu Zheng can maintain a high level and stable competitive state whether in Wolfsburg, Leicester City, or now Manchester City.

It was because of Chu Zheng's more comprehensive personal skills that he didn't eat his teammates' configuration.

On this point, Guardiola feels that Chu Zheng and Messi are quite similar.

In recent years, the media has been discussing that if Messi leaves Barcelona, ​​his state may plummet, saying that Messi is a system player.

The term system player has emerged in recent years, and it generally refers to certain players who can only perform well in a specific tactical system.

To put it bluntly, the performance of a certain player depends on a certain tactical system.

As soon as this kind of remarks came out, Messi, Ronaldo and other stars were all included.

Chu Zheng has also been discussed by the media and fans for a while.

But for the term "system player" invented by the media and fans, Guardiola thinks it is nonsense and a false proposition.

Football pays attention to teamwork, and no player can break away from the tactical system.

Unless he can fly the ball directly into the opponent's goal.

Therefore, in fact, every player can be said to be a system player.

It's just that the relationship between different players and systems is different.

For example, Chu Zheng, he is the fastest player to integrate into Manchester City's new tactical system.

why?
Because Chu Zheng has comprehensive personal skills and a brain with a super high golf quotient, no matter what you ask of him, he can do it, and he is close to perfect to meet your tactical requirements.

Therefore, in Guardiola's view, this is one of Chu Zheng's most valuable advantages, and this advantage alone is enough to instantly kill most players.

However, accidents always come unexpectedly.

In the 44th minute of the game, on the left side of Manchester City's penalty area, Kolarov, Fernando, Fernandinho, Eriksson, and Sissoko fought in a melee.

The possession of the ball changed hands three times. After Eriksson snatched the ball back again, he quickly brought it back along the wing.

Just as he brought the ball back about 3 meters, Eriksson was startled when he saw Chu Zheng approaching, and quickly passed the ball across his ribs.

Navas in the middle went straight up.

Sun Xingmin quickly turned around and made a forward pass to Ali in the right rib area at the top of the arc.

Before Ali's ball stopped, Otamendi grabbed it from behind.

In the next second, Ali, who was unprepared, was knocked away, and the ball was taken away by Otamendi.

After running two meters, Lamela rushed to Otamendi and stretched out his feet.

Otamendi kicked his right foot forward to the left, and even dribbled the ball from the left.

After successfully breaking through, seeing that Chu Zheng had already run to the middle circle arc in front of him, he passed forward without saying a word.

In the middle circle area, the moment Chu Zheng took the ball, Danny Rose, who rushed horizontally from the rib area on the right, fell directly to the ground and shoveled.

Chu Zheng braked on the spot, and at the same time quickly buckled the ball with his left foot to his right foot, dodging in a thrilling manner.

Seeing that Navas on the right had picked up speed and pulled the ball to the side, Chu Zheng didn't stop the ball with his right foot, but pushed the ball directly to his right rib the moment he touched the ball.

This action makes people look like passing the ball with fried meatballs, which is very ornamental.

The next second, as soon as Chu Zheng passed the ball, Lamela approached from Chu Zheng's right back.

At this time, many people understood that Chu Zheng was not trying to show off his footwork, but that he predicted Lamela's attack, and countless people were shocked by Chu Zheng.

Chu Zheng's pass would be blocked by Lamela even if it was 0.5 seconds slower.

At this time, Tottenham's left side is empty, which is an excellent offensive opportunity for Manchester City.

It's a pity that Navas wasted Chu Zheng's offensive plan.

After getting the ball, Navas didn't run very far before he was intercepted by Vertonghen, who moved laterally to fill the space.

After stealing the ball, Vertonghen quickly got up and made a pass to Lamela on the left side of the circle.

Manchester City quickly switched from offense to defense, encircling Tottenham's possession of the ball in midfield.

As a result, the two sides once again broke out in a one-minute fierce fight in the middle circle area, and the ball changed hands continuously.

During this 1 minute, the ball flew around the players' heads most of the time, which made the Manchester City players extremely disadvantaged in the process of fighting for the top.

Soon, the ball was pushed by Tottenham from the back line to the right rib of the middle circle.

Sissoko quickly got into position, and took off in front of Fernando and Kolarov around him for a lateral ferry.

In the middle circle area, Eriksson kept the ball straight forward, and then quickly advanced.

Fernando was too slow to turn and step to intercept, and the ball went straight to Sun Xingmin in the rib behind him.

At this time, because Kolarov came up just now, there was no one in front of Sun Xingmin on the left side of Manchester City.

Fortunately, Stones reacted quickly and quickly came to the ribs from the middle, blocking in front of Sun Xingmin in time.

Sun Xingmin couldn't fully speed up, so he had to slow down.

With this slowdown, Fernando and Kolarov behind them quickly chased back, forming a 5-on-3 situation against Tottenham.

Seeing that he was about to be flanked by left and right, Sun Xingmin found the right time and quickly made a cross to the left center.

At the front of the arc, Ali stopped the ball, facing the direction of the right rib, and made a cross pass to Eriksson, who was running from the right rib to the center.

Otamendi was caught off guard and was pierced in the crotch.

Fortunately, there is Sabaletta behind him.

But because of the occlusion of Otamendi's body, Zabaleta, whose vision was blocked, failed to stop the ball.

The ball hit his right foot and rolled laterally to the top of the arc with a right rib.

Sun Xingmin ran a little bit, and quickly retreated to get the ball.

At this time, Manchester City's defense has been completely disrupted by the interspersed running of the three Tottenham players.

There was a huge gap between Stones and Kolarov in the penalty area, allowing Ali to get right.

As soon as Ali was in place, Sun Xingmin slammed a straight kick in front of Zabaleta.

On the right side of the penalty spot, Ali pushed the ball directly to the far lower corner of the goal.

In front of the goal, Bravo made a save, but the ball was too close.

When he reached out his hand to the path of the ball, the ball had already leaped over, and rolled directly into the goal from the lower left corner of the goal and hit the side net.

"boom!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The moment the goal was scored, the new White Hart Lane Stadium once again ushered in a strong shock!The waves of cheers are like stormy waves!
On the sidelines, Pochettino, who was sitting on the coach's bench, jumped up when he saw the goal scored, with a look of ecstasy.

He really didn't expect that he could score 3 on 5.

Next to Guardiola is a speechless expression.

In the 45 minutes of the first half, every minute and every second was torture for Guardiola, destroying his confidence in the team's defense bit by bit.

It also made Guardiola see that the line of defense he personally built was not as strong as he had seen before.The excellent performances in the previous rounds were nothing more than castles in the air, and they simply couldn't withstand the impact of a style of play like Tottenham.

Not long after, the referee Marina blew the whistle for the end of the first half.

In the Manchester City locker room, the score was overtaken near the end of the first half, which more or less affected the morale and psychology of the Manchester City players.

Therefore, there is no usual noise in the locker room, and everyone seems a little taciturn, which makes people feel that the atmosphere in the locker room is a bit depressing.

Chu Zheng was wearing a white towel on his upper body, leaning on the locker to rest with his eyes closed.

He has only one feeling now.

tired!A kind of exhaustion seeping from the cracks in the bones is spreading rapidly in the body, making Chu Zheng not even bother to move his fingers, wishing to sleep on the spot for ten days and a half months.

From the beginning of the season to the present, Chu Zheng's physical value has not only returned to the peak value of last season, but also broke through to 90 with the team's physical reserve training.

However, the recent consecutive weekly double matches and Manchester City's aggressive and fast-paced tactics have put a huge burden on Chu Zheng's physical fitness.

As soon as he thought of the non-stop rush back to China to play the world preliminaries after the game, Chu Zheng felt a negative emotion of being bored with football from the bottom of his heart.

Chu Zheng knew very well that this was not his real thought, but just a rest signal sent to him by his brain after feeling the exhaustion of his body.

But people are in the rivers and lakes, and they can't help themselves.

Not long after, the locker room door was pushed open.

"sit down!!!!!!"

“Nobody talks!!!!!!”

"Sit down!!! Drink some water and take the time to rest!!!"

As soon as Guardiola walked in, he yelled loudly, and the locker room was completely quiet. No one dared to disobey Guardiola.

Chu Zheng also opened his eyes, straightened up and looked at Guardiola, who had his hands in his pockets and a cold face in front of the tactical board in the center of the locker room.

"I know you guys are having a hard time playing, and I'm having a hard time too!"

"I'm not God, and I know that!"

"But don't give me a bad face, that's the last thing I want to see in the team."

"I try to do what I can, that's it!" Guardiola said loudly while standing in front of the tactical board, writing and drawing.

"In the 45 minutes of the first half, you only played good goals for less than 20 minutes!"

"But I still saw what I wanted to see!"

"In the last ten minutes of the first half, you learned how to play bravely!"

"Regardless of today's result, I hope you will remember this game."

"I hope that no matter where we play in the future this season, we can fight with courage and defeat the opponents in front of us!"

After the words fell, Guardiola stopped, turned to look at the players in the dressing room, and said with a serious expression: "If our goal is to win the Premier League and the Champions League, this is a test that all of us must go through."

After the words fell, Guardiola stopped there and began to explain the tactical changes in the second half to everyone.

In Guardiola's cadence and passionate tactical explanation, the 15-minute half-time break was fleeting.

Not long after, the whistle sounded for the start of the second half.

"Pochettino did not make substitution adjustments during the halftime break!"

"Tottenham not only has not changed their personnel, but also their tactics!"

"They played very well in the first half, and there is no need to change!" Zhang Lu chuckled.

Zhan Jun nodded, changed the subject, and said with a smile: "As for Manchester City, Guardiola directly replaced Fernando with David Silva."

"There has also been a change in the position of the players in the frontcourt."

"Keylor Navas came to the left, Sterling was switched to the right."

"As for Chu Zheng, looking at his running area after the start of the game, he seems to be a single midfielder!"

"It's just a single midfielder, and Guardiola is still playing in a 4141 formation."

"The change of Chu Zheng's position is understandable, because Chu Zheng has the ability to play a single midfielder!" Zhan Jun looked puzzled, "But the switch between Sterling and Navas is intriguing!"

Zhang Lu laughed and said with a smile: "Navas switched to the left, maybe because he has a certain defensive ability, which can relieve some of the pressure facing Kolarov. Sterling switched to the right, maybe because he hopes Sterling cut inside and created opportunities in the frontcourt!"

……

(End of this chapter)