I started with Torres, to revive German football

Chapter 336 The hedging of the muscular midfielder

There is Gundo Angakante's double midfielder combination behind to wipe Yaya Toure's butt. Therefore, in terms of midfield defense, the comprehensive defensive ability of this midfield combination is definitely ranked third among Manchester City's midfield combinations. one!

The muscular midfielder composed of three midfielders, its hardness will make you afraid or not!
When Guardiola sent such a midfield combination, he naturally had his considerations. The opposing Tottenham midfielder was too tough!
Tottenham's side has a three-four-two-one lineup, with Harry Kane as a single goalkeeper, Eriksen and Alli as partners in the attacking midfielder position, and Trippier and Danny Rose as defenders on either side of the midfield. Wing-back, in the middle are two sweeping muscular midfielders, Dembele and Wanyama!

It can be said that in addition to the trio, Tottenham also placed four engineer midfielders behind them!It is bound to smash Manchester City's midfield organization forcefully, and it will be done in one sentence!
This is also one of the reasons why Manchester City let Yaya Toure serve as the attacking midfielder, using muscle against muscle to start a comprehensive collision!
Manchester City took the initiative to shrink back to a five-midfield formation at the beginning, and after seizing the ball, they really restrained Tottenham's rush, mainly because they controlled the ball steadily!

Yaya Toure was still very active in playing as an attacking midfielder today. He was very good at controlling the ball and passing long and short passes. Cooperating with several other teammates, Manchester City once reached a ball possession rate of 10 in the first 65 minutes.

After all, Yaya Toure does not need to cover a wide range of runs, that is the job of his teammates. He only needs to hold the ball steadily and control the accuracy of long and short passes.

When he was at Barcelona, ​​Guardiola often criticized his poor tactical discipline, but after arriving at Manchester City, Guardiola changed his mind and only let him do what he was good at.

This made Yaya Toure feel very comfortable. As soon as he felt comfortable in this game, Yaya Toure's technical skills were displayed. Wanyama and Dembélé were unable to do anything to him despite being attacked several times.

At this time, Manchester City had gradually gained the upper hand in controlling the midfield, but was stuck in delivering the ball forward.

Because Vertonghen and Alderweireld are back from injury, they are at odds with Zhao Jinge today. Anyway, no matter how you play in the midfield, Zhao Jinge can't get the ball easily.

Manchester City did not dare to press forward as much as the midfielders on both sides were fighting each other.

The two sides tested each other near the center circle until the 30th minute of the game.

At this time, Tottenham had the ball. After Ali stopped the ball, he passed it back to Eriksen, and he turned and rushed to the right front, which is Manchester City's left.

After Eriksen stopped the ball, he did not pass it back. Instead, he quickly passed the ball to the left without waiting for Kanter to get closer.

Danny Rose moved forward to catch the ball, and as soon as he stopped, Cancelo ran over.

The England defender took two steps back and passed the ball back to Eriksen.

Kante immediately caught up with the Tottenham midfielder, who quickly passed back to Wanyama on the backline.

Wanyama and Vertonghen trailed at the end of the team, and the ball bounced back and forth between the two players.

Kanter, Cancelo and Sterling have all rushed into position, but Kanter did not press too far forward this time, but cruised near Eriksson.

Tottenham's two backcourt players dropped their feet left and right, pulling Manchester City's defense over and over, but they couldn't find the passing line. Manchester City's overall formation followed Tottenham's passing without Running without stopping.

Finally, 20 seconds later, Tottenham got a chance and passed the ball to the left.

Danny Rose stopped the ball and moved forward. Before Cancelo could run over, he quickly sent a direct pass.

Eriksen dropped back from the front and received the pass from his teammate near the midline.

At this time, before Eriksen could stop the ball, Sterling behind him and Cancelo in front almost formed a flank attack on him, scaring the Danish midfielder and immediately passed the ball back to Danny Rose.

After passing the ball, Eriksen immediately inserted diagonally behind Sterling, ran back to his own half, left the wing, and wanted to meet Danny Rose.

Manchester City's pressure prevented Tottenham from finding an effective route for the ball, and they could only resort to the retreat of the frontcourt players.

Danny Rose also understood the idea and immediately passed the ball to Eriksson in the gap.

But just as the Danish midfielder was about to receive the ball, he found that Cancelo quickly turned around and came over. Gundogan was also applying pressure not far away, and there was Kante around him.

Especially Kanter, he is not far behind you. Once you get entangled with him, you don't know when you can get rid of him.

Eriksen was the first to stop the ball and wanted to pass it back to Alli in the middle, but Kante interfered behind him, causing the Danish midfielder's pass to miss and pass in front of Alli. .

Kyle Walker quickly moved forward. After receiving the ball, he strode forward with the ball. He got ahead of Dembele and sent a direct pass to Zhao Jinge at the top of the penalty area.

Under the double-team of Tottenham's two central defenders, Zhao Jinge stopped the ball and quickly passed it across.

Sterling quickly made a diagonal pass to the left rib, caught the ball before Alderweireld, pulled his right foot laterally, and hit directly with his kick.

The England winger's sudden shot was very decisive, but in the penalty area, Tottenham defender Vertonghen pressed forward decisively before he took off and blocked the shot with his body.

The ball flew to the center, Wanyama made a clearance, but Zhao Jinge also took a shot at the same time.

The ball hit Zhao Jinge's feet and fell to the right side of the penalty area.

Mahrez ran into the penalty area at this time. After stopping the ball, his whole body stopped.

Danny Rose was in position immediately, but Manchester City's players also adjusted.

Mahrez paused for a moment, and after his teammates reacted, he rushed towards Danny Rose with the ball, suddenly stabbed the ball to the bottom line, made a sudden sprint, quickly shook off Danny Rose, and went straight to the bottom line. Football Before leaving the baseline, the low ball with his right foot passed into the small penalty area.

In the middle of the penalty area, Zhao Jinge was like a heavy tank. Wanyama and Vertonghen were at a disadvantage in terms of height and strength. They could not stop the rampage of the Manchester City center. After being squeezed away, Zhao Jinge watched helplessly. Go straight towards the goal.

I saw that goalkeeper Lori reacted very quickly, abandoned the goal in time, made a flying save, and blocked Mahrez's cross.

After the football was saved by Lori, it did not fly far, but landed at the top of the penalty area.

I saw Gundogan, who had been delayed at the end just now, rushing over. He faced the ball saved by Lori, stopped, hit it again with his left foot, and hit a volley.

The football flew straight to the center of the goal.

At this moment, Lloris was still lying on the right side of the goal. Teacher Guo's shot went straight to the center of the Tottenham goal.

Wanyama's tall body blocked many shooting angles, and Vertonghen's shot was like a conditioned reflex, which happened to block it. The long-range shot hit Vertonghen's leg and bounced to the point. To the left of the ball point.

And Yaya Toure, who had already run close behind Zhao Jinge, cleverly grabbed the spot and stabbed the ball without stopping.

The football followed a straight line and got into the lower left corner of Tottenham's goal.

"GOAL!!!!!!"

"Yaya Toure! Yaya Toure!!" "He scored Manchester City's first goal of the game!"

Guardiola was originally standing on the sidelines, and he did not expect that the team's counterattack would be such a twists and turns, and even directly break through Tottenham's goal.

When Yaya Toure's shot appeared, he was stunned.

Guardiola jumped with excitement when he saw Yaya Toure and Manchester City players rushing out of the field to celebrate the goal.

Guardiola clenched his right fist and shouted loudly.

"Well done, Yaya!"

This is a goal formed by continuous shots.

First, Sterling cut in from the left and volleyed with his right foot. After being blocked by the opponent's center defender, Zhao Jinge subconsciously blocked it when he made a clearance.

Then Mahrez forced a break through Danny Rose's low pass, causing Lori to save the ball, and then Gundogan's long shot from the front of the penalty area bounced off Vertonghen.

Finally, it was Yaya Toure's shot!
Manchester City's attack was fast and furious.

Tottenham were originally organizing and planning the attack, but they made a mistake in passing the ball. Manchester City took advantage of this opportunity and launched a wave of attacks. In an instant, Tottenham were helpless and even confused. .

"In the 304th minute of the first half, Manchester City took the lead and scored."

"Tottenham's pass error near the center line gave Manchester City a chance to counterattack on the spot."

"The key to this goal is that Manchester City's counterattack was very vigorous, they invested enough players, and they also played an amazing sense of hierarchy."

“At the same time, the efficiency is very fast!”

"This is the characteristic of the teams coached by Guardiola. Their counterattacks and offensive instincts have always been so sharp!"

"Pochettino was a little careless after all. After Tottenham opened the game, the gap left by the defense was still a bit big. The players in the midfield and frontcourt were still too far forward, which formed a certain defensive combination with the three central defenders behind. The disconnect!”

"He probably wanted to compete with Manchester City, but he didn't expect that in the end, Manchester City beat them first. He didn't get the result he wanted. He wanted to use a heavily invested midfielder to disrupt Manchester City's midfield organization, but Still haven’t been able to crack Guardiola’s sophisticated midfield organization.”

"Now it depends on how Pochettino can turn the situation around."

Pochettino stood on the sidelines with a stern look on his face. He did not expect that he would be the one who lost the ball first in the end.

Now, he can only count on Tottenham's offensive group led by Harry Kane.

The game restarted and Tottenham passed the ball back, but Manchester City did not press too much. Instead, they continued to stick to the tactics just now, only grabbing the midfielder position, allowing Dembele and Wanyama to hold the ball at the end.

What's the point of controlling the ball?

Unable to pass the ball forward, he just back and forth between the two midfielders. This kind of ball control has no effect at all. Instead, the two offensive midfielders Eriksen and Alli have been harassed by Manchester City players. Unable to focus on midfield organization!

What's more, Tottenham have never been good at controlling the ball, and Pochettino is not a coach obsessed with controlling the ball.

Harry Kane was at the front, waiting for the pass from his teammates, but looking at the situation in his midfield, the England center could no longer bear the anxiety in his heart and chose to take the initiative to retreat to catch the ball!
As soon as Harry Kane retreated, Tottenham immediately found a way to pick up the ball directly from the backcourt and find him.

After stopping the ball, Gundogan was marking him near him, but Kane stopped the ball and passed it back to Eriksson who ran out of space. The latter quickly distributed the ball to the left and handed it to Ali. .

When Alli faced Kyle Walker, he made continuous fake moves, but the Manchester City defender was unmoved. When the England midfielder tried to cut inside, he stuck to him.

To say that in the previous game last season, when Manchester City's right wing was still Zabaleta, Alli really played a very exciting offense against Manchester City's right wing, but since Kyle Walker came, Manchester City's right wing has become stable. .

This time, the England midfielder had no choice but to pass the ball, but the ball was touched by Kyle Walker and bounced high.

The football fell to the center of the penalty area.

Kompany made a decisive move, and Kane quickly moved forward. The two of them shot at the same time, trying to intercept the ball from mid-air, but the Belgian central defender took the lead and removed the ball with the outside of his right foot.

Kane's kick immediately missed.

After unloading the ball, Kompany touched the ball with his second foot and firmly controlled the ball.

Ali came out with a diagonal stab and wanted to snatch the ball back, but Kompany skillfully avoided Ali's pressing by dribbling the ball, took two steps forward, and quickly sent it to the front, passing it to the unguarded Gundogan. .

Manchester City launched another quick counterattack, but this time Tottenham's midfielders positioned themselves very quickly. Wanyama used his long legs to chase back wildly, cutting off Gundogan in the defensive third. The pass!
The two sides continue to go back and forth,

Tottenham, who seemed a little anxious after falling behind by the score, began to actively play on the wing in their offense, and the wing attack was mainly concentrated on the side of Trippier and Eriksen.

So after the restart, Trippier's side was very active.

As soon as Tottenham grabs the ball and wants to pass it to the frontcourt, it will be handed over to Trippier and Eriksen's side immediately, and this side will instigate counterattacks and attacks.

This young full-back is also very good.

He first cut in from the right and then passed the ball horizontally to Alli at the edge of the penalty area, allowing the England midfielder to complete a shot from the top of the arc. However, it was interfered by Gundogan and was easily saved by Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart.

But soon, Tottenham pressed hard, especially Harry Kane and Alli, who actively suppressed Manchester City's defense.

Danny Rose on the left also began to actively push forward.

Tottenham created another shooting opportunity in the second minute of No. 40, a long shot from Harry Kane, but it was too high.

One minute later, Trippier quickly dribbled the ball from the right, reached the bottom line and passed to the goal.

Harry Kane and Stones competed for the top of the ball at the same time. Kane hit the football, but was interfered by Stones and headed directly high.

Tottenham's attack once again came to nothing.

(End of this chapter)