Chapter 353 Guardiola’s recovery was successful, and the 18-year-old youngster shines on the court!
"Half of Manchester City's starting lineup are substitutes, and there are also several guys whose names I haven't seen before!"
"Guardiola is so brave, he actually made such a large-scale rotation!"
"Do they look down on West Bromwich Albion that much?"
After seeing Manchester City's starting lineup, there was a lot of discussion from the outside world, and everyone felt that Guardiola was playing a little too much.
After all, West Bromwich Albion is a Premier League team, but you look down upon them by using so many substitutes!
The head coach of West Bromwich Albion thought so too. He glanced at Guardiola next to him with some resentment, and his expression was very ugly.
Guardiola looked very calm, at least on the surface.
He calmly sat down in the coaching bench, turned his head and chatted and laughed with the assistant coaches beside him. He didn't seem to be worried at all about what would happen to the starter he sent.
The 52-year-old Torrent, who was seated closest to Guardiola, asked with a worried face:
"Is this really okay?"
Guardiola replied calmly:
"If the tactic succeeds, there will be no problem!"
This sentence made Torrent even more worried: "What if the strategy fails?"
Guardiola shook his head: "Don't worry, my old buddy, you won't fail!"
When he said this, Guardiola's eyes fell on Lin Quanquan, who had just appeared.
With Lin Quan backing him up, he felt confident.
Under the spotlight, with the referee's whistle, the game officially started.
People who followed this game opened their eyes wide, wanting to see the difference between the Manchester City under Guardiola and the previous Manchester City under Pellegrini.
After watching for a while, everyone discovered something unusual:
"How does Fernandinho's position appear on the back line?"
"Is Manchester City's formation 3322?"
"It doesn't look like it. It looks like 3421 when attacking!"
"The positioning of the midfielder is so strange. How many defensive midfielders does Manchester City have?"
"Is it my imagination? Why do I feel that Manchester City has more people than their opponents? How come they have people everywhere and they have a numerical advantage?"
Ordinary fans said they couldn't understand Manchester City's formation at all. The opponent's defenders didn't look like defenders, the midfielders didn't look like midfielders, and even the wingers were different from what they imagined.
In this game, although Lin Quan was placed in the right wing position, he often retreated to his own half to get the ball on the court.
He doesn't feel like a winger, but more like a full-back positioned slightly further forward.
In a corner of the stands, looking at Manchester City's formation on the field, Chelsea's assistant coach Rui Faria, who has worked with Mourinho for 15 years, couldn't help but frowned and murmured. road:
"The midfielder swings and the winger retreats?"
He just saw clearly that when the defense was in position, Fernandinho appeared in the central defender position.
But when attacking, his position is in the midfielder position.
The advantage of this is that it can increase the number of people in the midfield and increase the ball outlet.
This tactic was used by Guardiola when he was at Barcelona and Bayern. He once transformed two midfielders, Mascherano and Martinez, into defenders.
So when Faria saw Fernandinho's position moving back, he immediately thought of this tactic.
However, what is the use of this tactic with wingers retreating?
Faria couldn't see through Guardiola's intentions for a while, so he could only continue to observe.
People from other teams who came to spy on intelligence had similar thoughts to him. Everyone had seen Guardiola's adjustments to Manchester City.
However, limited by their vision and the inability to guess Guardiola's unbridled thoughts that day, they were not clear about Guardiola's intention for a while.
After Fernandinho moved forward, Manchester City's numerical advantage in the midfield was reflected, and they quickly organized several threatening attacks.
This made the head coach of West Bromwich Albion very vigilant. He was not an idiot and naturally saw where the problem lay.
They didn't arrange players to limit Fernandinho!
After all, who would deploy manpower to limit the opponent's central defender before the game?
With no one restricting him, Fernandinho became the initiator of Manchester City's offense in the midfield and backfield.
If it weren't for his poor ball-playing ability, Manchester City might have scored goals in several previous attacks.
Fernandinho is seen pushing forward from the back line once again, coming to the defensive midfielder position.
The head coach of West Bromwich Albion suddenly stood up and shouted to the players on the field, asking the team's left midfielder to move in and step forward to restrict Fernandinho, who had become a defensive midfielder.
This move had an immediate effect. After Fernandinho was restricted, the number of Manchester City attacks through this point quickly decreased.
"Haha, is this the so-called world-famous coach?"
Seeing that his adjustments have achieved very obvious results, the head coach of West Bromwich Albion is very proud and his self-confidence has been greatly improved.
He has never been convinced by so-called famous coaches like Guardiola.
I feel that the other party is just more famous, and may not really be much better than me!
After he beats Guardiola with a weak victory in this game, his name will be famous all over the world, and maybe he will be able to live the addiction of a famous coach.
On the Manchester City coaching bench, after seeing the opponent make adjustments and restrict Fernandinho, Guardiola was not worried but happy, and his posture on the coaching bench became more relaxed!
"It's done!"
he told assistant coach Torrent.
As soon as Guardiola finished speaking, the situation on the field immediately changed.
In the 9th minute, when West Bromwich Albion's left midfielders moved in to restrict the forward-moving Fernandinho, Lin Quan also retreated from the opponent's half to his own half.
The Manchester City full-back, who was about to pass the ball to Fernandinho, immediately passed the ball to Lin Quan, who dropped back to receive the ball.
After the opponent's left midfielder moves in, there is a huge space on the wing.
And because Lin Quan retreated to his own half, this area was not within the defensive range of the opponent's full-back.
So, the moment Lin Quan caught the ball, no one interfered within ten meters of him!
For a player of Lin Quan's level, leaving him such a huge space for movement is a very fatal mistake!
West Bromwich Albion quickly paid the price for their mistake!
In the 11th minute of the first half, Lin Quan passed several people on the wing and assisted Iheanacho to score a goal, rewriting the score to 1:0.
The moment the goal was scored, Guardiola on the coaching bench couldn't hold it back and rushed out from his seat to celebrate wildly!
This was his first game in charge of Manchester City. Due to the high level of attention from the outside world, coupled with his risky formation changes and extensive substitutions, Guardiola was under tremendous psychological pressure.
Fortunately, my tactics worked!
Fortunately, Manchester City scored first!
After scoring this goal, the game becomes much easier!
Thinking of this, Guardiola was determined.
The head coach of West Bromwich Albion next door was dumbfounded after seeing Manchester City score!
Why did the defense suddenly collapse?
He scratched his head in confusion, a little confused as to how his team was defeated!
But in the stands, Faria felt shocked.
His previous doubts were solved in Manchester City's attack!
It turns out that using these two tactics together is Guardiola's real killer move?
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but think in his heart:
If Chelsea encounters Manchester City and the opponent uses this tactic, how will they limit their opponent?
After Fernandinho moved forward, Manchester City had three defensive midfielders on the field.
To completely restrict these three midfielders, forward players alone are definitely not enough.
Their midfield has to get involved.
However, there are at least five players in the opponent's midfield and frontcourt who need to be marked. If one's own team invests too many troops to restrict the opponent's midfield and backfield, the team's defense will lose its sense of hierarchy, and the defense in the backcourt will completely become man-to-man.
The defense line will also be compressed to two!
What's even worse is that there will be a vacuum zone about 20-30 meters wide between the two lines of defense.
As long as the opponent makes good use of this space and only needs a threatening pass forward or a successful pass, they can penetrate their defense and threaten their goal!
And there are no less than five players in the Manchester City team who can complete this kind of fatal pass!
There are many players in the Manchester City team who can complete such unreasonable breakthroughs, especially No. 10 on the field - Lin Quan!
This guy's one-on-one pass success rate is almost 100%!
I haven't seen anyone successfully restrain him in one-on-one defense yet!
Thinking of this, Faria couldn't help but start to sweat on her forehead.
If he were to coach Chelsea, he felt that if he faced Manchester City with this style of play, his winning rate would probably not be higher than 10%!
Fortunately, Chelsea's head coach is not me!
This result gave Faria a little peace of mind.
However, can José limit Guardiola's tactics?
Thinking of this, Faria couldn't help but start to worry again.
…
On the field, Iheanacho, who scored the goal, saw the ball rolling into the opponent's goal and ran wildly with excitement!
This is his first time playing for Manchester City and this is his first goal in the first team!
He had imagined many situations in his mind, but he never thought that his experience in the first team would be so smooth!
All this is thanks to the man on the sidelines!
So, after scoring, Iheanacho rushed to the sideline immediately and gave Guardiola a warm hug.
"Thank you, boss, it was a wonderful night and one I will never forget!"
Guardiola was also very pleased. He did not expect that the opponent's debut would be so successful.
"You deserve it, enjoy the night and enjoy running on the court!"
"Well, I will, just look at it!"
After receiving encouragement from Guardiola, Iheanacho was disappointed and felt full of strength.
On the field, after Lin Quan and De Bruyne high-fived and celebrated, they stood quietly in the center circle and looked at the two people hugging and celebrating on the sidelines.
Iheanacho is very fast and his movements are smart. The opponent shot the ball very calmly just now, which left a good impression on Lin Quan.
No wonder he is called the Prince of Manchester City, he really does have something.
The Manchester City fans in the stands were pleasantly surprised to see the young Manchester City player, who had just turned 18, score a goal in his first home appearance for the team.
Has your team’s youth training finally yielded results?
"What's this kid's name? He's so fast!"
"His name is Kelechi Iheanacho. He was promoted to U23 not long ago. I didn't expect to represent the first team so soon!"
"This level is pretty good. I feel like with a little more training, I can enter the rotation!"
"Well, we don't have many people on the front line, so he still has a chance to play!"
"I have long heard that Coach Guardiola is good at discovering and training young players, and he is also very willing to give young players opportunities. When I saw him today, he really lived up to his reputation!"
Manchester City fans were pleasantly surprised. They were still very nervous when they saw Guardiola's formation.
But I didn't expect Guardiola to lead such a group of young players to achieve such outstanding results.
This makes them all feel that the head coach has hired the right person, and Guardiola is indeed the most suitable for Manchester City!
Some Manchester City fans can’t help but enjoy the future:
"With Guardiola's name, many young players will definitely come to join us in Manchester City in the future. In this way, one day in the future, our youth training camp in Manchester City may be as famous as Barcelona's La Masia!"
…
After hugging Guardiola to celebrate, Iheanacho did not forget to thank Lin Quan for giving him an assist.
If Lin Quan hadn't selflessly passed the ball to him in the end instead of shooting it himself, he would never have had a chance to shoot.
The game continued. After scoring the first goal, the morale of the Manchester City players was greatly boosted, and then they launched a series of fierce attacks on their opponents.
Looking at the opponent's side, the mentality of West Bromwich Albion's players was greatly affected after conceding the goal.
At the request of the head coach, they increased their marking and pressing of Lin Quan.
If Lin Quan hadn't passed several people on the wing just now, they wouldn't have lost the ball so easily.
Therefore, from the perspective of the West Bromwich Albion players, as long as Lin Quan is restricted, Manchester City's offense can be effectively contained.
However, it turned out that they were wrong!
Only 5 minutes had passed since the first goal. In the 16th minute of the first half, Manchester City scored again!
The person who scored the goal was De Bruyne, and the way he scored was almost the same as the first goal!
The difference is that this time Manchester City's attack was launched from the left.
If the first goal conceded was just accidental, then there would be no excuse for the second goal conceded.
In particular, this ball has almost nothing to do with Lin Quan. He restrained a large number of defensive players on the right and did not participate in the attack of this ball.
This made the head coach of West Bromwich Albion break into a cold sweat and feel very panicked.
His opponent used the same tactics to score two goals, which almost killed the suspense of the game, but he still couldn't see what the problem was, let alone how to deal with the opponent's tactics.
He couldn't help but glance at the Manchester City coaching bench next door with some fear: Is this the strength of a world-famous coach?
